Arati Kumar-Rao
@AratiKumarRao
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@BBC 100 Women ‘23 @NatGeo Explorer Chronicling Landscapes with Photos+Words+Art Book: Marginlands
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Folks, i am taking a break from this platform.
I will not be reading messages/posts or posting here for a while.
Please email me to reach me: aratikumarrao at gmail
Adios amigos🙂 👋🏽
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When my mic failed, he said, “i’m so sorry Arati, there’s a problem”
When it failed again, sensing my nerves, he came to stand by me. Holding my hands, looking me in the eye, “They’ll fix it, don’t worry”
A true gentleman
Happy Birthday,
@iamsrk
May only the best come your way
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Why is
#bellandur
area of
#bangalore
flooding badly? A clue👇🏽
Agara-Bellandur-Varthur
#lakes
were connected
#wetlands
.
Then, built over. See change 2003-2015.
Prolly worse now!
#Environment
≠ an “obstacle to clearances”
It’s what we need to pay attention to, to save ourselves
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This man's energy, his empathy, his genuineness, his no-airs persona, his down-to-earthness, his patience, his manners, his self-deprecation, his humility, his affection, his ease at being himself.
After an evening around him, I've fresh respect for Shah Rukh
@iamsrk
, the man.
Busy...busy...busy! Time to think out of the box on Ted Talks! Listening and Learning.
#TedTalksIndiaNayiBaat
.. On
@StarPlus
@TEDTalks
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A personal anecdote I'd posted 8yrs ago:
#RKNarayan
's family were tenants in our ancestral home in
#Mysore
. Family friends. This room, where I work when I go there, used to be his space once. They say he wrote Malgudi Days here :)
There's an irresistible quietude to this room.
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Any Bambayyas Mumbaikars on my TL? Flying out today, I was treated to these vistas of our dear islands!
#Mumbai
Yeh Hai Bombay — Meri Jaan
#BombayMeriJaan
#aerialphotography
#blackandwhitephotography
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Growing up, it would bug me that we heard so much about Edmund Hillary & so little about Tenzing Norgay. I wanted stories about Norgay.
So today was a landmark day for me. We had tea with Norgay’s son & his wife, in Bhutan. Hearing stories of his father gave me gooseflesh.
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Why is the
#Bellandur
area of
#bangalore
flooding so badly?
A clue, in 20 years of indiscriminate concretization of connected
#wetlands
and disruption of natural water flow
I updated with map-2022, and zoomed in to the area devastated by last night's
#bangalorerain
.
Why is
#bellandur
area of
#bangalore
flooding badly? A clue👇🏽
Agara-Bellandur-Varthur
#lakes
were connected
#wetlands
.
Then, built over. See change 2003-2015.
Prolly worse now!
#Environment
≠ an “obstacle to clearances”
It’s what we need to pay attention to, to save ourselves
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Just realized that all my photos that have made
#bookcovers
thus far have been
#shotoniphone
:) on a humble (now ancient) iphone 4s!!
💪🏽👊🏽 “what camera, which lens?”queries 😃😃
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A photo taken in Upper Assam one
#monsoon
day.
The
#Brahmaputra
in this part of Assam has to be seen in monsoon to be believed. Some 18km wide, you cannot see one shore from another or from the middle of the vast grey.
A Mishing man rows alone in the rain -->
#Rivers
#Rain
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When u wake up to an email from
@NatGeo
that goes, "Congratulations! The National Geographic Society's Committee for Research and Exploration has awarded you a grant ..."
Yaaay! Now, befikar, I can do some serious longterm work on the
#SlowViolence
of
#EnvironmentalDegradation
!
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Eight years i carried a wish deep in me: to visit A River At The Heart Of The World.
When it finally happened, I was dissolved completely.
My story in
@emergence_zine
about a sacred, special place ... & imminent danger:
#rivers
#sacredlands
#himalaya
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Three
#ThingsofBeauty
, shared daily.
3. Lightning brightens up clouds under the Milkyway in the
#Sundarbans
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A thing of beauty posted daily: 5 yrs ago, i decided to dedicate my reporting to
#rivers
. I packed a bag, & left home w a 1way ticket. On that first foray, on the banks of my eternal love -
#Brahmaputra
- i met
#hoolocks
. A surprise that sparks joy even today.
#rivers
#primates
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#TEDTalksIndiaNayiBaat
, Hosted by
@iamsrk
/
#StarPlus
, invited us to talk about our work in a Short Film which airs tonight (SatNov9)
@NatGeoIndia
HD - at 7.25pm
NatGeoSD – at 5.52pm
(Hotstar link not live yet)
Have inclination & time? Do see
I'm gonna be 2 nervous 2 watch! ;)
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Cant believe
@BBC100women
included me on this list of Influential & Inspiring women from around the world, 2023!😃
Thank you for spotlighting work that is slow, with no charismatic or spectacular, glam stuff!!
Towards a more just, equitable, ecologically sustainable economy ✊
For the last time on X, we're proud to present this year’s list of influential & inspirational women from around the world!
The 2023 season of
#BBC100women
also highlights women who have been working to help their communities tackle climate change.
➡️
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When you see landscape photos & know what the air smells like between two mountain rises, what it feels like on your skin ... because you’ve walked there?
Priceless.
#EastSiang
#Siang
basin ... home of an ancient, fierce, proud, and valiant people.
#Adi
#ArunachalPradesh
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The greatest silences, my best self, and utmost reverence come forth in experiences like these, when I am in Nature.
Out
#onassignment
for my first story for NatGeo and my cup of gratitude brimmeth over :)
#Transhimalaya
#Himalaya
#mountains
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So
@sidagarwal
started mapping
#FiftyTrees
of
#Kolkata
and slowly people joined in. i’m a bit late to this party, but now, firmly in
#Bangalore
, i’m starting my own “Namma Oorinna Maragulu” :) NOM!
1/50: a blossom and bud on a gorgeous Saraca indica (Ashoka tree)
#trees
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A most wondrous shampoo (truly) emanates from this “shampoo ginger” squishy squeegee flower head :)
Zingiber zerumbet, folks!
And turn your sound on for a surprise background score :)
#flora
#westernghats
#hornbills
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5th grade math, anyone?
320/16000 =?
What are we missing here?
And if we are not missing anything, how alarmed should we be, in the face of such incompetence and then mainstream media unquestioningly publishing the incompetence?
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One thing of beauty posted daily ...
Forest breath ... the fragile, fraught, conflicted rainmaking beauty of
#Namdapha
National Park,
#ArunachalPradesh
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*Sound On*
This is not the sound of rain.
This is what dewdrops at dawn sound like, under these
#trees
, in this little patch of the
#Westernghats
#dew
#forests
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Hahaha ooops truth-telling Dr Desai aint never gonna be invited back on Fox News!
How to ensure you don't get follow-up questions on Fox, apparently.
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A Palestinian Sunbird, their symbol of hope for freedom, made with 10,022 lines.
In memoriam of those slain, including 4,100 children and 2,600 women.
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I felt like revisiting something beautiful, so sought out a moment ... one where we looked up from watching a red fox, to see this ... the light shifted so quickly that a frame or two later, this scene was gone.
#Ladakh
#changthang
#monastery
#ephemera
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My parents, 81 & 74, have discovered visual documentation. Mom has picked up a camera & is learning to shoot (she’s a great spotter!). Papa loves his phone cam.
From bejeweled flies to green spotted frogs to hornbills to fungi … nothing escapes their attention!😍
@supriyakumar
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In 1918
#EugeneDebs
gave a an anti-war speech that got him sent to jail. This sentence, tho, dang!!
"In every age it has been the tyrant, the oppressor and the exploiter who has wrapped himself in the cloak of patriotism, or religion, or both to deceive and overawe the People."
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For those who asked for a persistent link of the teeny tiny film on
#TEDTalksIndiaNayiBaat
with
@Starplus
and
@iamsrk
, it is live on Hotstar now:
#StarPlus
@NatGeoIndia
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A path to the school
Runs through golden paddy farms
And a cool quick stream
#Malenadu
#Westernghats
#Neighbors
#72postcards
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Hi! Am entering a diff phase: Living close to the land, off-grid, learning from observation & doing. Reading more, writing more, drawing more, & eventually planting, restoring ~ “reverdure is my calling”
Will be off socmed; responses will be significantly delayed
Be well, all :)
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A thing of beauty posted daily:
"There is mystery behind that masked gray visage, an ancient life force, delicate & mighty, awesome & enchanted, commanding the silence ordinarily reserved for mountain peaks, great fires, & the sea."
~Matthiessen
#Elephants
#EndangeredSpecies
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My fav suggestion for anyone wanting to tell stories for a living ... lace up those walking shoes! ;-)
Thank you for sharing,
@InsideNatGeo
:)
“You really don’t need a passport or a plane ticket to go find stories. You need a good pair of walking shoes.” -Explorer
@AratiKumarRao
uses multimedia to tell the stories of lives and places through seasons and change.
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Apparently
#monsoon
2018 is upon us.
Five years ago I waited on the southernmost tip of
#Kerala
to find out for myself what exactly “monsoon arrives” means.
Here’s what i found:
Posted on
@Maptia
#rains
#southasia
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10 yrs ago, when we built a house in a bubble in
#Bangalore
, i begged the builders to allow me to install
#rainwaterharvesting
. Was refused. Watching tanker upon tanker supply borewell water, i’ve finally decided to go rogue. Gonna harvest my roof-drops of rain.
@zenrainman
, thx!
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Running from task to neverending task, I wanted a break. So at the dining table last nite, I splashed some coffee & ink to fashion a
#tigress
Looks a little wonky, yea… if I’d taken care, would’ve been better! But felt great :)
#Illustration
always feels good
#tigers
#natureart
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Picked up
#charcoals
after a year, hesitantly, with a mix of a trepidation, desperate to do justice to our Raju’s eyes, & a gnaw that i’ve never really learned to sketch
Here’s looking at you, kid!
@PaulSalopek
@outofedenwalk
@Pri_Borpujari
@sidagarwal
@prempanicker
#donkeys
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When your 18 yr old daughter home for the holidays, speaks up during a CAA/NRC debate to calmly recite Niemöller from memory, you smile.
May such light never diminish
May kids always see beyond any propaganda, analyse, debate, discuss, diagree...
but never ever stay mum
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A thing of beauty posted daily ...
#Elephants
#Clouds
#Grasslands
. ... a few of my fav things!
#SriLanka
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Asi in
#Adi
means “water” & àpì-ang means “heart.”
Si-ang, in the language of the Adi people who inhabit this valley:
“the river that flows thru our heart”
If a
#dam
planned on
#Siang
comes to pass, a world of
#biodiversity
&
#culture
will be lost forever
#ArunachalPradesh
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She took my sunglasses off the top of my head, perched them on her nose, straightened her jacket, smoothed hair, pulled me close, & asked someone to take a pic! Then she stuffed our pockets with homegrown roasted barley.
Field moments to live for!
#ladakh
#onassignment
@natgeo
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If the Olive Trees knew the hands that planted them, their oil would become tears”
~ Mahmoud Darwish
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A childhood dream to write for
@NatGeoMag
comes true today.
My tiny story about a huge issue & a hope. A salute to the courage of
#Ladakhis
&
@Wangchuk66
, & a reminder of who is to blame for the
#ClimateCrisis
mountain folks face
Photos
@CirilJazbec
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I stood on a heaving rolling pitching wet deck, alone. 1 slippery hand desperately clutched the rails, the other steadied a camera on the rainiest day of the yr in
#MilfordSound
#NZ
. The water was near black, tossed in a howling wind.
Then, cleaving the madness, an
#albatross
!
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Walk along the
#Siang
towards Pasighat, hang right, then float on the
#Brahmaputra
in Upper
#Assam
.
Here's what you'll see: Siang, & then, the shoreless mighty one, downstream from the \|/ (Siang-Dibang-Luit)
I had to keep picking up my jaw from the boat deck ;-)
;)
#Rivers
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“Plant a billion trees!” Which, where, why, why not, how? Who cares!
When details of reports are not read deep & science is jettisoned in favor of headline-marketing, “good intentions,” “at least someone is doing something,” & sloganeering, we get this:
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Again, flooded basements & ground floors of swanky gated communities.
#bangalorerain
Self-inflicted wound when “we imagine Industry is what sustains us, forgetting what sustains Industry.”
#environment
Pay attention to the lay of land
It’s the only way out
Pic via whatsapp fwd
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My 2nd grade
#art
teacher had called mom to school to complain that i spoil my sketches when i add paint to them. I'd almost failed in art class...
It has taken me decades to overcome fear & even dare try watercolours ;-)
#leaves
teaching myself
#botanicaldrawing
#natureart
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Walking 600km through Punjab and Rajasthan on the
@outofedenwalk
with
@PaulSalopek
, I craved the hush away from the highways.
My impressions from the walk:
It’s been a privilege walking with you, Paul! Here’s toasting you & the team at Out Of Eden Walk
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#Clouds
can make almost any city look pretty :) ;-)
Wings over
#Dubai
, about 90 mins ago.
#cities
#windowseat
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#ThingsOfBeauty
shared daily :)
Time for the horses to go home. On the
#RoofOfTheWorld
, a family returns.
#ladakh
#india
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ICYMI:
#TEDTalksIndiaNayiBaat
, Hosted by
@iamsrk
#StarPlus
, invited us to talk about our work in a very Short Film: airs tonight (SatNov9)
@NatGeoIndia
HD 7.25pm
NatGeoSD 5.52pm
(Hotstar link not live yet)
Have inclination & time? Do see.
I'm gonna be too nervous to watch! ;)
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If Ladakh had a soundtrack:
It would bark dogs, bleat goats
Rush water, lap water,
Flap wings
Clop hooves, hoot with eagle owls
Chirrup with wheatears,
Sing with shearers,
Ring bells, churn wheels, chant hymns,
And howl ...
Howl with wind & wolves
#Soundscapes
from
#Ladakh
:
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Reupping this since
#BlueTwitter
is something (donno what ;-))
And what better than the blue of the gloaming!
#twilight
#godhuli
from around the world
#Bangladesh
#India
#Kenya
#Arctic
#Kerala
#Assam
#Sundarbans
#Brahmaputra
#Desert
#Thar
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One night’s rain and the ground beneath my feet is celebrating :)
#westernghats
#uttarakannada
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Any fans of the
#forestfloor
here? Leaf litter and the once-in-three-years blooming Eranthemum roseum (suspected) is smothered and snagged in a tunnel-sheet
#spider
web.
I couldn't get enough of these scenes during
#forest
#walks
in the
#WesternGhats
- a
#biodiversity
#hotspot
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One thing of beauty posted every day.
Imagine a world where we all behaved like
#elephants
;-)
I like the taste of that thought.
#matriarchy
#compassion
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Moonset over the
#Himalaya
...
A day after chaudhvin ka chaand, March 2019
The first day of the waning gibbous
#moon
...
...
#Himalayas
#blackandwhitephotography
@SonyAlpha
#RX10M4
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Mad fan of
#trees
that i am, i’m going to start another thread:
#FiftyTrees
of
#AllIndia
... with trees encountered on travels, at large.
@sidagarwal
pl add this thread to Moments :)
1/50: Big buttressed (people for scale) beautiful lofty Tetrameles nudiflora, Arunachal Pradesh
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On
#WorldPhotographyDay
, in praise of quiet. Seeing
#Trees
&
#Landscapes
for their own sakes.
One of my fav trees, the Simolu (silk cotton tree Bombax ceiba), photographed in
#Kaziranga
Oh, and, in praise of whatever camera is closest to you
#ShotoniPhone
#SlowJournalism
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One thing of beauty posted daily.
Fractals shrouded in fractals ... the Shola cloud
#forests
of Hortons Plains,
#SriLanka
, with a splash of
#rhododendron
#FiftyTreesofTheWorld
#fiftytrees
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Just a brief pop in to share three
#thingsofbeauty
... all from the skies above
#bengaluru
#bangalore
Drama w
#clouds
,
#ibises
(black-headed) & kites (Milvus migrans govinda) that occasionally attack their flyby, enroute to namma oorinna kere our city's
#lakes
#birds
@Avibase
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A thing of beauty ...
#EveryDayIsEarthDay
I never tire of peering into this photo of the crown of the King: the lofty (~240 ft high) emergent Koompassia excelsa, adorned in bee-hives. In
#Borneo
#Sabah
#Trees
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Ugh. What a misguided, misleading title+article
When "green" becomes a business, unscientific, colonial tropes of "wasteland," championing India's "green goals" as if they were some trophy to be won in isolation, divorced from the land itself, become OK
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Dude. 🤦🏻♀️ your geography. I walked into Myanmar from Moreh in Manipur (psst that's a state in India) a few months ago.
#Kuchbhi
....Myanmar to India- 1769 kms
....Myanmar to China.- 2km
But,
Why the Rohingyas want to come to India?
and
not China?
Because Unlike India,
there are no seculars
no Intellectuals
no anti nationals no
in China, who support refugees
Rohingyas
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Three
#ThingsofBeauty
, shared daily.
3. As a kid, I always wanted more
#TenzingNorgay
stories. Then, one day last year, I met his son & heard moving stories. The next day, I flew over this scene. I couldn't see what i was clicking, for the tears in my eyes.
#Everest
#himalaya
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The
#ForestFloor
sprouting fruiting bodies of Termitomyces sp. — a new crop! Fascinating, watching them grow.
#westernghats
#72postcards
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Spent an afternoon with mom, sis, and daughter painting
#ceramics
. These were my pieces ;-) sent away to be glazed and fired. So addictive, art!
#rainier
#blackneckedcranes
#afternoons
#makemoreart
#girlpower
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Under a cold bright winter sky, in Karnataka... a
#blackbuck
.
#EndangeredSpecies
#antelopes
#outsidePAs
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Somewhere between the beautiful lofty
#Kanchenjunga
and majestic
#Chomolongma
(Mt
#Everest
), I peeked beyond the
#Himalayas
and into the plateau of
#Tibet
... thrilling.
#WindowSeat
#Geography
Also ... if you squint, dont the Himalayas look like a very choppy, dark sea? :)
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The heaviest flying bird in India ...
#GreatIndianBustard
#GIB
(Giving the smallest Indian bird, a pale-billed flowerpecker, a ride)
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#Monsoon
in
#Kerala
taken 8 years ago this week, on the trip that set me off on my
#freshwater
trail.
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Morning on the largest
#freshwater
#lake
in India,
#Loktak
in Manipur.
So much beauty hiding so much pain.
#fishermen
#water
#artisanalfishing
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continuing this thread:
Scenes from my
#riverdiaries
...
5. Two women fish in
#Wetlands
in their paddy fields. Wetlands are crucial to the health of
#Rivers
. Replenished by floods, they function as kidneys and serve as fish nurseries.
Lower
#Assam
Basin:
#Brahmaputra
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#FromMyArchives
a sketch of a baby
#Orangutan
in charcoal on paper ... it peels out of its nest to say, "stay safe, be well!"
#charcoal
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A thing of beauty:
#Donkeys
intelligent, hardworking, stoic, uncomplaining, beautiful-eyed, strong, adorable creatures.
So when u call someone "Donkey" or "Ass," it's a huge compliment!
A tribute in ink to little Raju
W/
@PaulSalopek
@Pri_Borpujari
@sidagarwal
@outofedenwalk
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A thing of beauty posted daily
#2
Dedicating my posts today to
#Elephants
and
#Mothers
...
Photographed in
#SriLanka
, on the banks of a public tank... outside of national parks
#MothersDay
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Who is responsible for ~80% of the Oxygen on Earth?
(If you’re thinking forests, think again :))
#Oceans
— the seaweed (accounts for 54% on its own), the phytoplankton, ++ are spewing the good stuff 😃
Our Oceans are Earth’s Chief Climate Regulators.
#WorldOceansDay
@UNESCO
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The danger with broad brush strokes? Greenwashing
The reporter missed an imp pt: greening in China is from forests (42%) & croplands (32%), but in India is mostly from croplands (82%) with minor contribution from forests (4.4%)
Not all greens are gold.
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A tribute to my darling Tessa who passed on yesterday. We lost you too soon, baby. I hope you are surrounded by beautiful creatures, my darling!
#inkonpaper
#moleskine
#kittens
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I cried tears of joy when I spotted my first (sacred to Buddhists, IUCN:vulnerable) black-necked
#cranes
. In the
#wetlands
of
#Changthang
, we saw ~12 breeding pairs+1 loner; also a chick: a little rufous ball that teetered over trying to stand up :)
#endangeredspecies
#birds
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"We are made of starstuff."
CARL SAGAN
#sundarbans
#milkyway
I bowed gratefully for the privilege to behold this :)
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