A week with Dr George Schaller

Hi folks!

Allow me to introduce you to the most important person who you might never have heard of, Dr George Schaller. Conservationist, pioneering biologist, doggedly committed to studying and protecting nature. Small excerpt from the article:

He has spent nearly six decades traversing, studying and striving to protect the world’s forests and natural landscapes, creating a legacy that spans continents and generations. Through his efforts, thousands of acres have been designated as protected wildlife refuges across the planet. Since the 1950s, Schaller has been involved in scientific studies and conservation efforts for some of the planet’s most charismatic wild animals – the Mountain Gorillas of the African Virungas; the Snow Leopards of Nepal’s Dolpo and Pakistan’s Hindu Kush mountains, the Bengal Tigers of Central India’s forests, the Giant Pandas of China, the ungulates of the Himalayas, including Tibetan Antelopes and the Marco Polo Sheep, the Jaguars of South America, the Asiatic Cheetahs of Iran – and that’s just to name a few. He’s the recipient of a National Geographic Lifetime Achievement Award and the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement. Today, at the age of 84, he continues to travel to these landscapes where he pioneered ground-breaking research, and check in on the work that scientists and conservationists carry forward today.

Trekking in Tirthan Valley with George Schaller!

Read the full article here:

https://www.natureinfocus.in/story/a-week-with-dr-george-schaller/

Do leave a comment and let me know what you think!

V

I've been writing!

Hi folks! 

In case you're wondering why there was radio silence on his blog for almost a year, it's not because I've not been writing. (Because who in their right mind would choose to not struggle with hours and days of writer's block drying your eyes staring at a screen, and get frustrated over not being able to produce engaging and light-hearted articles on nature and wildlife and after around 15 edits managing to barely write something that's not torturous to read? 

Not this girl.

*internally laughs trying to pass off the reality as a casual self-depreciating humour, heh..he...*

OKAY, OKAY, it's not that bad! 

Although, if you think about it...

Okay, I'll stop.

SO there were a few drafts in the pipeline about the lovely forest travels I've had this year, and I did post them on the blog. It occurred to me that they didn't seem as awful as my writing usually does to me (heh...) so I decided to send them over to some magazines, who thought the pieces were good enough for publication. I was all Whaaaat?!? and then I was all Woohooo! These complex emotions are best depicted by this raptor soaring over the Thar desert dunes:

Photo: Shailesh Gupta

So..you feel me? Great.

The first article has been published in the October issue of Sanctuary Asia magazine, about my time roaming the Thar desert in March this year, surveying a weird, beautiful, proud, critically endangered bird called the Great Indian Bustard. With their global population hovering around 150 birds, these birds survive in fragmented pockets of grassland habitat. Here it is - please read and leave a comment, folks!

http://www.sanctuaryasia.com/conservation/field-reports/10718-great-indian-bustards.html

Photo: Shailesh Gupta

At a forest chowki in Desert National Park, Sudasari.

This photo is misleading because the GIB is not that tall, but
this is the only decent (?) field photo I have, so bear with me.

And yes, there will be more articles soon :)

Watch this space,

V