Columnists

Ranjit Lal

Lal is an author, environmentalist and bird watcher.

What makes them the juiciest of all

Tue, May 17, 2022

Succulents hold their own, in gardens and wastelands, armed to the teeth with spikes and hooks and poisonous fluids

What happens when a tree explodes like a dynamite stick

Wed, May 11, 2022

It’s how several species prompt their seeds to leave home and germinate

The apes and us

Wed, May 04, 2022

The difference in our make and that of our relatives in the wild is only about one per cent

What Mother Nature missed out on

Wed, Apr 20, 2022

When nature’s evolutionary engineering department forgot to invent the wheel

What I saw from my hospital window

Tue, Apr 12, 2022

In India, pet therapy may yet not be a legit line of treatment, but staring at birds outside a hospital-room window can be therapeutic

Who can horrify with its giggle or make you nervous with its howl?

Tue, Apr 05, 2022

Listen in as we travel through the jungle and listen to the soundbox of creatures great and small

How Mother Nature engineers light and tough armours for her myriad species

Wed, Mar 30, 2022

What’s common between a rhino’s horn, pangolin’s scale, and porcupine’s quill? These natural weapons are made of the same protein found in human hair

What a hypnotic dawn and dusk can do

Wed, Mar 23, 2022

Every dawn brings with it the sense of a new beginning and every dusk a sense of serene closure

What makes a tree throw a party for every bird, insect and animal in this flowering season

Thu, Mar 17, 2022

The flower goblets of the red silk cotton brim with the finest nectar, replenished almost every evening, for all to savour.

The bird who sang for a swimming pool

Wed, Mar 09, 2022

There’s an exuberance about bird calls that make you feel optimistic despite the distress in the world

Who’s got the best eyesight in the world?

Wed, Mar 02, 2022

Can it be an owl who can see at night, or a human being whose vision is seven times sharper than a cat or a dog

How I got hooked on to nature

Tue, Feb 22, 2022

Stare long and hard enough at a tree, the sense of wonder will beginning to stir, or, perhaps, a coppersmith barbet might remind you of a clown with hiccups.

Why Lata Mangeshkar deserves a better moniker than the nightingale

Tue, Feb 15, 2022

Songs of the blue whistling-thrush, grey-winged blackbird, white-rumped shama or magpie-robin far outclass the nightingale

How wetlands are the nurseries of life

Wed, Feb 09, 2022

And they really do a lot of the hard, heavy and dirty lifting in order to keep ecosystems ticking

How Mother Nature gave wings to her fancy by devising ‘flight’

Wed, Feb 02, 2022

When humans take for granted nature’s feats, the act of flying is one such — from feather and wing designs, decorative and functional, to different techniques for birds and insects.

Let the climate play its tricks, the world will go on

Tue, Jan 25, 2022

Even if Mother Nature tries to confuse us with freak weather, some natural phenomena remain as is and are major cues to how we behave

Parleys in the Jungle: Canines vs Felines

Wed, Jan 19, 2022

Like among our domesticated friends, the cat and the dog, in the wild, too, this generational debate finds no happy ending

It’s a Cat and Dog Story

Wed, Jan 12, 2022

In the game of one-upmanship, which among the two, evolved from a common ancestor, has a better chance at winning?

Why lizard’s cousin, the commonly found skinks, are difficult to spot

Wed, Jan 05, 2022

The harmless, non-venomous ones saunter in indoors for heat on wintry evenings or when rains flood their tunnels

What takes down a bull elephant in a single bite?

Tue, Jan 04, 2022

With spring-loaded reflexes and formidable swoops, the animal kingdom proves that size doesn’t matter

When scientists filmed the inner sanctum of a chrysalis

Thu, Dec 30, 2021

They found a speckled illuminated field, like of thousand fireflies, on the wings of the butterfly

An open letter to COVID-19

Thu, Dec 30, 2021

How the world would be grateful if new variants would choose their future victims more responsibly

Wolfie in the Window II: Why behind your dog’s soulful eyes and wagging tails lurks the ghost of the grey wolf

Tue, Dec 07, 2021

To ensure a civilised pet, the first thing to do is to show them, quite clearly, right from the beginning, that you are the pack leader

What did mama goose tell baby goose on his first migratory flight

Sat, Dec 04, 2021

What migratory geese think of the aeroplane and human world's flying abilities

Are you a ‘specialist’ or a ‘generalist’?

Tue, Jan 04, 2022

Animals, birds, plants, even humans, come under these two categories, based on the food they eat. Being a fussy eater can therefore be dangerous, says Ranjit Lal