Ever wondered how even a small postage stamp sized patch of  green can alter quality of life in big cities?  I spent my childhood without a garden in our house. And then when I started working, I was lucky to live in what are called ‘bungalows’ in India. The kinds you see in Lutyen’s Delhi, with large sprawling lawns, kitchen gardens – the works. And then again back to apartments. It was in January that we again moved into a house with a small patch of green. Though it was late in winters but we put in some Gaillardias and to our surprise they bloomed in spring and carried on well into summers. Take a look.

A bright orange bloom

Another one but a little different too!

  A sea of yellow

 Bollywood love birds?

 Looks like a ‘rakhi”

 Aren’t they beautiful?

 Caught in the web of life

You won’t believe but a little green brings myriad visitors in its wake. This one was ‘bagged’ in the heat of the Indian summer when temperature was around 42 degrees celsius but it is well perched in the foliage.  

 And this one looks ready to take off

 Hard to believe that there are peafowls where we live? But it is true. These are aplenty. And we live in a city with 2 million plus inhabitants.

  Look at the bright colour on its neck. And its feathers . 

  Lunch time

Even langurs 

  And this is our resident squirrel 

  This one is perhaps looking for juicier grub.

  Hope you enjoyed browsing as much as I enjoyed posting it.

Jharkhand is a state blessed with wide variety of flora and fauna. It is the store house of several rare and endangered species. More than half of the landmass in Jarkhand comes under forestry. There are several National parks, wildlife sanctuaries and Zoological Parks in this beautiful state.

Belta National Park a 250 sqkm wide paradise is a home for several animals like Tigers, Elephants, Bisons, Sambhars, spotted Deers, Rabits, fox, Langurs, Blue Bulls, Rhesus, Wild boar and Pythons some of them are as long as 6 metres. It is also included in Project Tiger. The Palamau Tiger reserve is another wildlife reserve included in Project Tiger. It is the home for several mammals, snakes, lizards, fishes, insects, birds, seed bearing plants and trees, Shrubs and herbs, climbers, parasites and semi parasites.

The Jawaharlal Nehru Zoological Park is the biggest in the state of Jharkhand. Its covers an area of 200 acres with an artificial water park and boating facilities. 16 km away lays the states most popular zoo. Mother nature can be experienced at her best in Jharkhand. The state capital Ranchi has an airport hence reaching there is not a difficulty. The city is also well connected by rail and road with good accommodation facilities.

Hanoi (VNA) – Scientists from the Fauna and Flora International (FFI) have recently found a group of snub-nosed langurs in a forest in Tung Vai commune, Quan Ba district, northern mountainous Ha Giang province.

The group includes four male mature individuals, three female mature individuals, three baby langurs and four others.

Based on the findings, the scientists predicted that there would be some other 60 langur individuals inhabiting in Tung Vai and nearby areas in Ta Van and Cao Ma communes, also in Quan Ba district.

This is the second time the scientists have discovered langurs in Ha Giang province, which will enable them to make accurate assessment of the habitat and situation of snub-nosed langurs in Vietnam.-

Check out this delightful story in todays Times about a conservation success in China, preserving habitat and restoring a population of highly threatened langurs.

A couple of things are of note about the piece.  First, it offers an example of one of the most important modern conservation ideas:  a command approach to preservation is hard one to enforce; much more likely to succeed is one that creates the right combination of economic and moral incentives for those on the front lines — the people, often very poor within the neighborhood in which conservation is to take place.

Second, good work has a long tail.  The scientist-hero of this story was moved to study the social behavior of langurs after reading E. O. Wilson’s seminal Sociobiology, first published in 1975.  A third of a century later, five hundred langurs owe their own, their home’s, and potentially their species’  continued existence to the spark of the ideas in that book.

Third — a little shameless self-promotion, at least the institutional variety.  The author of the piece, Philiip McKenna graduated from the MIT Graduate Program in Science Writing — my home base — in 2006.  We can’t take credit for his incredible work ethic, sense of story and spirit of adventure…but it is always a pleasure to think, with cause, I believe, that what we did here helped him on his way.

Image:  Mori Sosen, “Monkeys in Plum Tree,” 19th century.  Source:  Wikimedia Commons.  And yes, I know, this is a Japanese painting of a different species of monkey than the one discussed above.  I like the picture, OK?

In a bold and brazen attack, a gang of Rhesus macaques assassinated New Delhi Deputy Mayor S.S. Bajwa. As this article at MSNBC (ed. note original source: Washington Post – updated 1/7/08) clearly shows, the monkeys have stepped up the hostilities towards Man.

 The real problem is that humans are training langurs – a larger and fiercer kind of monkey – to scare off the Rhesus monkeys. Aren’t we just creating and training a new wave of simian thugs that will eventually turn on us?

Once we go down this path…we can never go back.

Check out more fun monkey stuff on my new blog at Punkeys.com