Suresh Kumar

The great great journey of Apapang and Alang to India and then to Africa has begun from North East China. The satellite tag data is showing interesting journey of these two Amur falcons. Good time to visit Nagaland and Manipur to see them in hundreds of thousands in number. Via @sureshwii

Every September the hills around Chandrabani in Dehradun hold their breath. For two days the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) turns into something larger than an institute. It is a living, breathing congregation of people who have given their lives to wildlife conservation in India. This week it is the 37th Annual Research Seminar (ARS). Thirty-seven years. What began as a modest internal review has now literally become a cult event, a pilgrimage, a melting pot, where the veteran who radio-collared the first tigers in the decades back sits just next to the intern who has just come back from a monsoon camp in the Nicobars. ARS is not mere an annual conference. I say it a family reunion with ideas, data, methods and results. Professors, forest officers, PhD scholars, MSc students, field assistants, who come from different walks of life, are there under one roof to get the ideas collide, methods grilled and results challenged. New collaborations are born over Chai. You hear the same stories told with new numbers, and new stories told with the old fire. That is the beauty. And then there are the speed talks of young Turks. I fell in love with this ‘gun powder module’, I would say, when I witnessed it last time. Five minutes. One idea. No mercy. A researcher stands up, the clock starts, and the room leans forward. I can see the hearts pounding when a young researcher wants to finish the talk in time. River dolphins in a noisy Ganga. Lightning creating species-rich pockets in Andaman mangroves. Gaur learning to live again in a landscape that once forgot them. A young voice explaining how an underpass on NH44 actually works. The best speed talks feel like poetry written in science; sharp, focused, crisp. You leave the hall buzzing, already arguing with the person next to you. That is the magic. In an age of long keynotes, these five-minute lightning strikes remind everyone why we fell in love with this work in the first place. For two days WII becomes the unofficial capital of wildlife science. Tigers, elephants, bustards, dugongs, lesser floricans, snow leopards, freshwater turtles, dolphins, every species that still has a fighting chance gets its moment. The old guard nods. The young ones take notes like their lives depend on it. Because in a way, they do. If you have ever walked a transect at 4 in the morning, or sat in a hide till your legs went numb, or felt that particular ache when a project you poured three years into finally gets its five minutes in front of the people who matter, then you already know. ARS is home. 37 years and the fire is still burning brighter than ever. Here is to the next generation who will stand on that stage and make the veterans smile. The wild is still out there. And so are we. Proud of you guys. See you tomorrow to hear and learn from you all. @SPYadavIFS @wii_india @wildwithwolves @V_kolipakam @BivashPand34733 @GobindsagarBha1

Katerniaghat is a place where vultures have been breeding even in difficult times. Tall Semal trees were used by them for making nest. #VultureAwarenessDay

An interesting updates on Alang’s ongoing journey back to her home. Unlike all the previously tagged Falcons, Alang has been undertaking rather short flights covering, on average, 300 km a day. Alang, passing through West Bengal, reached the Bangladesh border on 24th May and, interestingly, turned back west to reach eastern Bihar. There it stopped over for three days, and on the 28th started flying north to Nepal and, as of last evening, had arrived at the eastern end of Bhutan bordering Assam, where it has stopped over for the night. This is the first time any of the tagged Amur Falcons have made a stopover in Bhutan. Alang has been making flights depending on the prevailing weather conditions and is likely avoiding flying into heavy rain zones. @sureshwii