INSANE: Western ghats | Vintage Vibes

Post-Monsoon Travel: Passes, Forest Roads and Ferries That Reopen in October

The monsoon does not merely wet India, it closes it. Passes above 4,000 metres fill with snow and slide risk. Forest departments lock gates on roads through tiger reserves when visibility drops and paths turn to silt. River ferries on the Brahmaputra and in the Sundarbans suspend crossings when currents…

Times Life · Nov 1

Bengaluru-Goa route to get new Vande Bharat Express that will pass through scenic Western Ghats: Check route, stops, timings, timetable and other key details

Bengaluru-Goa Vande Bharat news: A new Vande Bharat Express is set to be introduced between Bengaluru and Goa. This train will operate on the Yesvantpur-Madgaon route and cover multiple stations. The journey through the Western Ghats offers scenic views, enhancing the travel experience. Additionally, a Vande Bharat Sleeper service between…

The Economic Times · Oct 31

What Forests Lose When Hornbills and Civets Disappear

A great hornbill can swallow a fruit the size of a golf ball, fly three kilometres, and deposit the seed in a gap of light where it has a genuine chance of germinating. The civet does something different but equally precise: digestive acids thin the seed coat, cutting the time…

Times Life · Oct 31

5 Lessons From E Sreedharan on Finishing Work When Everyone Expects a Delay

E Sreedharan once said that the difference between a project that finishes on time and one that doesn't is decided in the first week, not the last. He was describing the Delhi Metro, but the principle applied equally to the Pamban Bridge he rebuilt in 46 days after a cyclone,…

Times Life · Oct 24

The African Catfish Is Banned in India. It's Still Spreading Through Our Rivers.

In 2000, the Government of India banned the import and farming of African catfish, Clarias gariepinus, after ecologists flagged what it does to freshwater ecosystems. The fish is still here. It is in the Yamuna, in Kerala's backwaters, in wetlands across Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, and in farm ponds…

Times Life · Oct 23

How Lantana Camara Is Quietly Destroying India's Tiger Reserves

Lantana camara produces a berry that looks edible, smells faintly sweet, and is mildly toxic to most mammals. That detail captures the plant's entire strategy: it offers just enough to get dispersed, and then it poisons the competition. Brought to India by the British as a hedge ornamental in the…

Times Life · Oct 23

Wildlife Underpasses on Indian Highways: What They Are and Who Uses Them

A camera trap set inside a concrete culvert beneath NH-44 in Madhya Pradesh once captured a tiger padding through at 2 a.m., unhurried, following a scent trail that predated the road above it by centuries. The underpass had been there for three years before the tiger showed up. That gap,…

Times Life · Oct 22

Cardamom Auctions of Kumily: The Spice Trade You Can Actually Watch

Kumily sits at 900 metres on the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border, and the air there smells different from the moment you step off the bus, not sweet, exactly, but sharp and green in a way that takes a second to place. It is cardamom, and it is everywhere: drying on rooftop…

Times Life · Oct 22

Kombai dog breed: what India's ancient guard dog needs in a flat today

The Kombai looks like a dog that has never had a soft day. Medium-sized, deep-chested, with a short tan or red-brown coat and a distinctive dark muzzle that shades into the face, it carries the compact musculature of a dog bred to work across rough terrain for hours. In Tamil…

Times Pets · Oct 22

What Dead Animals on Indian Highways Tell Scientists About the Wild

The Carcass as a Data PointA mongoose on NH-48. A star tortoise on the Mysuru-Bengaluru expressway. A wolf spider the size of a palm on a rural district road in Vidarbha. None of these deaths made news. Each one, if recorded with GPS coordinates, a timestamp, and a species ID,…

Times Life · Oct 21