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FORGOTTEN HISTORY: Brahmaputra - The Untold Story

Ecological collapse in the world’s largest mangrove forest is a preview of what’s to come

The first thing that struck us wasn’t the missing trees, but the missing water. In May 2026, we visited the Sundarbans, a mangrove forest in the delta where the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers meet in the Bay of Bengal.

The Conversation

How Migratory Fish Navigate India's Rivers During the Monsoon Using a Biological Compass Science Is Still Mapping

The fish that reads the river like a mapThe Hilsa, Tenualosa ilisha, can detect a change in water salinity of less than 0.1 parts per thousand. That sensitivity is not incidental. It is the opening move in one of the most precise navigational performances in freshwater biology. Every monsoon, adult…

Times Life

India's Indian Softshell Turtle Is One of the Most Endangered Freshwater Reptiles in Its Own Rivers

A Reptile Built for Rivers, Stranded by ThemThe Indian softshell turtle, Nilssonia gangetica, can grow to over 70 centimetres and weigh close to 25 kilograms. Its shell is not the hard dome most people picture. It is a flattened, leathery pad, cartilaginous rather than bony, that lets the animal slip…

Times Life

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Beyond Tigers: How the Sundarbans' Tidal Mangrove Web Keeps Asia's Largest Forest Alive

The Mud Is the EngineThe Sundarbans sits across roughly 10,000 square kilometres of the Bengal delta, where the Ganga, Brahmaputra, and Meghna rivers meet the Bay of Bengal. Twice a day, tidal water floods the forest floor and retreats, depositing silt and carrying nutrients. This cycle, not the trees, not…

Times Life

India's Terai Grasslands Are Vanishing, And Taking Species Found Nowhere Else With Them

A Strip of Land That Shouldn't ExistThe terai is a geographical accident. Where the Himalayan rivers slow down and drop their sediment load onto the plains, they created a belt of waterlogged grasslands, sal forests, and oxbow lakes stretching from Uttarakhand through Bihar and into the lowlands of Nepal. It…

Times Life

India's Last Gharial Stronghold: Why the Chambal River Saved a Crocodilian No Other River Could

A Crocodilian Built for One Thing, Destroyed by Everything ElseThe gharial's jaw is so narrow it cannot eat anything larger than a fish. Gavialis gangeticus evolved that way over millions of years, a specialist so refined it cannot pivot. That specialisation is also why it collapsed so fast when India's…

Times Life

Why Kailash Has Never Been Climbed: What Ancient Texts and Sacred Tradition Record

The mountain that turns people backAt 6,638 metres, Kailash is not the tallest peak in the Himalayas. Climbers have stood on summits twice its height. The technical difficulty is not beyond modern equipment. And yet no human being has ever stood on its top, not one confirmed ascent in recorded…

Times Life

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After deadly floods in India's Assam, experts call for better warnings and long-term planning

More than 100 people have died in floods in India’s northeastern Assam state which government officials say is the worst the climate vulnerable region has seen in six decades

The Independent UK

The crisis after the flood in Assam villages: Lost livestock, missed crop, and wait for aid

When the floodwaters rose around their home in Rajapul on July 19, Bandana Buragohain had no way of getting out on her own.

Newslaundry

Rohu: India's Most Beloved Freshwater Fish Has a Surprisingly Complex Role in River Ecosystems

The fish everyone eats, almost nobody studiesLabeo rohita, rohu, is the single most cultured freshwater fish in India by volume, accounting for a significant share of inland aquaculture production alongside catla and mrigal in the IMC (Indian Major Carp) system. It grows fast, tolerates crowded ponds, and takes to supplementary…

Times Life

The Hilsa Fish: Bengal's Beloved Ilish and the Ecology Behind India's Overfishing Crisis

A Fish That Lives Two LivesThe hilsa, Tenualosa ilisha, is an anadromous species: it spends most of its adult life in the Bay of Bengal and the coastal sea, then swims hundreds of kilometres upstream into freshwater rivers to spawn. This is the same biological strategy used by salmon, and…

Times Life

The Bar-Headed Goose Flies Over the Himalayas at Altitude That Would Kill a Human in Minutes

The verified record no other bird matchesThe bar-headed goose holds the verified altitude record for a bird crossing a mountain range under its own power. Radar tracking published in Science in 2011 by researchers at Bangor University recorded individual geese flying at 6,400 metres above sea level during their Himalayan…

Times Life

India's Fishing Communities and Dolphins: A Coastal Coexistence Passed Down Through Generations

The Dolphins That Follow the NetsIn Chilika Lake, Odisha's vast brackish lagoon, Irrawaddy dolphins and fishermen have developed a working rhythm that marine biologists have studied for decades. The dolphins herd fish toward the shore and toward the nets. The fishermen, reading the dolphins' movement, cast at the right moment.…

Times Life

How Kaziranga's Rhino Conservation Brought the One-Horned Rhinoceros Back from Extinction

A Species That Nearly DisappearedAt the start of the 20th century, the greater one-horned rhinoceros, Rhinoceros unicornis, had been hunted so relentlessly across the Indian subcontinent that fewer than 200 individuals remained, almost all of them concentrated in the tall elephant-grass floodplains of what is now Kaziranga. Trophy hunting under…

Times Life

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Times Life

A 10-Day Northeast India Roadtrip Itinerary Covering Meghalaya, Assam, and Nagaland Without Rushing

Days 1 to 2: Guwahati to Kaziranga, Start Moving Before You Think You're ReadyLand in Guwahati, clear the airport, and drive east on NH27 the same afternoon. The road is wide and fast for the first two hours, then it narrows into the Brahmaputra floodplain and the light turns gold.…

The Economic Times

Chinese geologists question safety of Brahmaputra Mega-Dam in Tibet being built over active seismic fault line

In a startling revelation, geologists from China have identified an active fault line beneath the Brahmaputra hydropower project, prompting concerns over the dam’s stability and adjoining infrastructures. This finding challenges previous reassurances from Beijing about the project's safety features. The construction, which commenced last July amid known seismic threats, has…

Times Life

Hornbill Festival in Nagaland Is the Cultural Event That Changes How You See India

The thing nobody tells you before you goYou expect colour. You expect drums. You have seen the photographs, the headdresses made from the tail feathers of the great Indian hornbill, the warriors in full Naga regalia standing against a pine-green hillside outside Kohima. What the photographs cannot carry is the…

The Economic Times

China's plan to build world's biggest dam on Brahmaputra near Arunachal Pradesh hits an 'Ice Age fault': Report

Chinese scientists have identified an active fault line beneath the Yarlung Tsangpo dam construction zone. This geological finding raises significant concerns for India regarding water security and ecological damage. The dam, intended as the world's largest hydropower project, faces potential structural instability issues. India has long sought greater transparency and…

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The Times of India

China's mega dam on Brahmaputra facing major natural threat: Report

The warning comes at a time when Beijing's massive dam project has already become a geopolitical flashpoint. India has repeatedly expressed concerns over China's upstream activities on the Brahmaputra, citing potential risks to water security, ecology and downstream communities. The latest study now raises fresh questions over whether the project…

Times Life

5 Lesser-Known Wildlife Sanctuaries in India Where Real Solitude and Wilderness Still Exist

Dampa Tiger Reserve, MizoramDampa sits in the far west of Mizoram, sharing a border with Bangladesh, and receives a fraction of the footfall that Kaziranga or Corbett pulls in any given weekend. The reserve covers roughly 500 square kilometres of semi-evergreen and moist deciduous forest, and tigers are present, though…

Times Life

Kaziranga in Assam Is the Wildlife Reserve India Has No Answer To, And the Rhino Is Why

The animal that stops you coldYou are sitting in an open jeep on a dirt track through tall elephant grass when the rhino appears. Not far away. Not behind a fence. Close enough that you can see the texture of its armoured skin, the way its small eyes register you…

The Economic Times

Assam flood update: Over 46,000 affected, 3,809 hectares of crop land flooded

Assam grapples with escalating floods as 46,000 people in six districts face inundation, with Dhemaji bearing the brunt. The Brahmaputra and another major river are dangerously high, causing significant infrastructure damage and submerging over 3,800 hectares of crops. Tragically, the state recorded its first flood-related death in Dhemaji. Relief efforts…

Times Pets

Mahseer Fish: The King of Indian Freshwater Rivers

Why Is Mahseer Called the King of Indian Rivers?

Close-up of Mahseer fish highlighting its large scales, powerful body, and royal appearance.

Mahseer earns this royal title due to its unmatched power and endurance in Indian rivers. It can swim against strong currents, leap over obstacles, and survive in rocky…

The Conversation

China plans to build the world’s largest dam – but what does this mean for India and Bangladesh downstream?

China recently approved the construction of the world’s largest hydropower dam, across the Yarlung Tsangpo river in Tibet. When fully up and running, it will be the world’s largest power plant – by some distance.

Al Jazeera

‘Dam for a dam’: India, China edge towards a Himalayan water war

Despite protests from locals, India is building a giant hydro dam on the Siang River to counter a Chinese dam.

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