Ranjit Lal

Lal is an author, environmentalist and bird watcher.

Down in Jungleland: Shooting Birds

Sun, Aug 19, 2018

The digital art of capturing birds.

Down in Jungleland: The Hunter and the Gentleman

Sun, Aug 12, 2018

The incredible life of Jim Corbett. Having spent a lifetime roaming the Kumaon and Garhwal forests, Corbett was an expert tracker, reading the faintest signs left behind by his quarry.

Down in Jungleland: Singing in the Rain

Sun, Aug 05, 2018

How the rain rejuvenates nature and the many lives it nurtures. Here, the summers are blazing, with everything in sight bleached white by the sun. There is dust on every surface around us.

Down in Jungleland: Death of a Tree

Sun, Jul 29, 2018

The munificence of trees is lost on a people bent on destroying the very thing that gives them life. It’s not as if nature makes life easy for trees. A tiny undigested seed may be deposited in a dung heap by an animal that has just munched a delicious fruit.

Down in Jungleland: We Are (Twisted) Family

Sun, Jul 22, 2018

Ahoy, humans! Animals have it complicated too.

Down in Jungleland: Flying Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Sun, Jul 08, 2018

Have you been made a cuckoo of recently? The common hawk-cuckoo impersonates a shikra found in lightly wooded countryside, gardens and groves. The pied cuckoo, aka the Jacobin cuckoo, is a maverick.

Down in Jungleland: Wild Deception

Sun, Jul 01, 2018

In the forest, mimicry is often a way of life. Of course, now technology has stepped in and you don’t even need to know how to howl like a wolf or roar like a tiger. You simply play back recordings and wait.

Down in Jungleland: Beyond First Impressions

Sun, Jun 24, 2018

The common garden lizard gets a bad rap for little reason.

Down in Jungleland: Singing in the Rain

Sun, Jun 17, 2018

Of peacocks and peahens who come alive during the monsoon. It is during the monsoons, that the gentlemen come into their own. A dancing peacock can stop you in your tracks no matter how many times you may have seen it perform before.

Down in Jungleland: The Red Pierrot Mystery

Mon, Jun 11, 2018

If only humans, too, could metamorphose like the butterfly.

Down in Jungleland: Small, Pesky and Powerful

Sun, Jun 03, 2018

Can the wild and its big game do without the tiny tots?

Down in Jungleland: Deadly in White Satin

Sun, May 27, 2018

Let not the beauteous egret fool you of its attacking skills. The snowy little egrets on reedy black legs and splayed yellow feet mince around ponds and waterbodies, where they display myriad fishing techniques.

Down in Jungleland: Spider Pitch

Sun, May 13, 2018

Would you walk into an arthropod emporium to buy silk? What if spiders sold their silk? Imagine walking into a silk emporium run by arachnids, you would be greeted by a sales-spider: a charming, young Ms/Mr Hairy-legs.

Wild At Heart

Sat, May 12, 2018

Wildlife biologist Rauf Ali takes on animals, bureaucrats, politicians, policemen, villagers, students, forest officers — and everyone he encounters during the course of his work and research, with point-blank frankness.

Down in Jungleland: Balcony Birding

Sun, May 06, 2018

Step out of your hotel rooms and say hello to the visiting friends.

Down in Jungleland: Circle of Life

Sun, Apr 29, 2018

The invisible soldiers who keep the rhythm of nature alive.

Down in Jungleland: Temples of the Earth

Sun, Apr 22, 2018

What do trees achieve in their lifespan? Nurture one to find out.

Down in Jungleland: Waltz Not To Like?

Sun, Apr 15, 2018

They’ve got the moves.

Down in Jungleland: Landmine in the Grass

Sun, Apr 08, 2018

Game birds might be hard to spot, but keep an ear out and watch your step and you just might be lucky. Making an acquaintance of the grey francolins, the commonest of the tribe found across India, except the Northeast, is pretty easy.