Feb 25, 2012 Posted by daktre

Dazzled and deceived

Thanks to a recent British library membership acquisition, I got hold of this book by Peter Forbes - Dazzled and deceived: Mimicry and Camouflage. The book effortlessly leads the reader through a journey that begins in earnest with the comma butterfly flying across a garden and slowly winding its way through personal lives of luminaries in biology, through the private struggles and public lives of the... read more

Aug 27, 2011 Posted by daktre

“old and fragile records” in an age of RTI and computers: How our heritage collections are managed by ZSI

The Zoological Survey of India has an illustrious history. On 1st July, 1916, the organisation was instituted with a mission to “…to promote survey, exploration and research leading to the advancement in our knowledge of various aspects of exceptionally rich life of the erstwhile British Indian Empire” (Emphasis mine). Alfred William Alcock was a British physician-naturalist, a common breed in those... read more

Jan 17, 2011 Posted by daktre

Valparai TEN

January 15th was the tenth year of Wikipedia. Although, I missed being at the Bangalore TEN celebrations, along with Kalyan, some of us held the celebrations in Valparai. Here is a brief write-up I did on it as a guest contributor on the restoration blog of NCF. Pasted below is the article from there: In the little Tamil village that we know so well, it was just another day. The coffee was flowing like... read more

Jul 19, 2009 Posted by daktre

Questionable Intelligence in Wildlife Crime Bureau

The website of the Panna Tiger Reserve greets you with the pug marks of a tiger on its homepage. It carries a nice news ticker about one of the many recent awards it got from the Ministry of Tourism of the Government of India for being the best maintained and tourist-friendly national parks of the country. With over 90 staff managing the Tiger Reserve and being on the tourism circuit, Panna is a fairly... read more

Sep 16, 2008 Posted by daktre

Delhibirding at Okhla

I was in Delhi over the weekend on work and I was able to catch up on some Sunday birding with Delhibird members. Just thought of sharing my experience with them, this being my first birding outing in Delhi. Due thanks to Gopi Sundar, Anshu, KB Singh and a diverse group of members from Delhibird well represented in age, gender and profession! A particularly hot Sunday morning, the stench of the Yamuna and... read more