The Latest Breaking News from the Deccan Plateau

India's Slender Loris Is a Venomous Nocturnal Predator That Hunts Insects in Total Silence

The muscle trick that makes it invisibleMost predators announce themselves through speed. The slender loris does the opposite. Its skeletal muscles are composed almost entirely of slow-twitch fibres, which means every movement it makes is so gradual and so free of tremor that the insects it hunts never register it…

Times Life · Sep 20

Indian Wolf: How One of the World's Most Genetically Distinct Wolf Species Survives India's Open Grassland

A Lineage That Branched Off Before Europe Had WolvesA 2021 study published in the journal Molecular Ecology placed the Indian wolf's divergence from the broader wolf lineage at somewhere between 400,000 and 700,000 years ago. That predates the arrival of grey wolves in Europe and North America. Every wolf you…

Times Life · Sep 15

Inside the Maharajas' Express: The Cabins, Routes and People Who Actually Book India's Most Luxury Train

What You Are Actually BuyingThe cheapest berth on the Maharajas' Express starts at roughly $4,000 per person for a five-night itinerary. That number stops most people cold, and then they read it again to check they haven't misplaced a zero. They haven't. The Presidential Suite, one of two on the…

Times Life · Sep 8

India's Stick Insects: How Mimicry, Camouflage, and Disguise Reveal the Outer Limits of Survival

The Insect That Isn't ThereCarausius morosus, the Indian stick insect, can hold itself motionless for hours on a branch and become, to any predator scanning the canopy, a twig. Not approximately a twig. A twig with the right diameter, the right surface texture, the right slight bend. The order Phasmatodea,…

Times Life · Aug 8

Lonar Crater Lake in Maharashtra Is a Saltwater Meteor Scar That Deserves Its Own Trip

What the ground remembersThe water at Lonar is the colour of a bruise healing, greenish, then pink at certain hours, then a flat grey that makes you question whether you imagined the colour at all. You are standing inside a bowl roughly 1.8 kilometres wide and nearly 150 metres deep,…

Times Life · Aug 7

Russell's Viper Kills More Indians Than the Cobra Does, What You Need to Know About India's Deadliest Snake

The Snake India Fears and the Snake India Dies From Are Not the SameAsk most Indians which snake to fear and you will hear: cobra. The spectacled cobra (Naja naja) is woven into temple iconography, folklore, and every snake-charmer image ever put on a postcard. It is genuinely dangerous. It…

Times Life · Aug 6

Dog Breeds That Actually Thrive in India's Heat and Humidity: What the Climate Really Demands

The one biological fact that changes every recommendationDogs do not sweat through their skin. Sweat glands in dogs are located almost exclusively in their paw pads, a surface area so small it contributes negligibly to cooling. The primary mechanism is panting: rapid, shallow breathing that evaporates moisture from the tongue,…

Times Life · Jul 11

Maharashtra’s climate crisis: Traditional practices, modern promises fail to quench rural thirst

In Maharashtra’s Satara, Mann Desh, a region deeply rooted in the Dhangar community’s nomadic traditions, struggles with a severe water crisis. Despite centuries of shepherding the Deccan Plateau and surviving on their expertise to find water, the community continues to face dire shortages.

Newslaundry · Sep 12, 2024