Articles by Deepa Mohan

Deepa Mohan is a freelance writer and avid naturalist.

The Sloth Bear Foundation presents: Wildlife Conservation and You at S Hotel 60, 13th Cross, 2nd Main, Phase III, J P Nagar Bangalore 560078 +91 80 4245 6060 and at Aloft Hotel 17C, Sadaramangala Road · • Off Whitefield Main Road, Opposite ITPL · Bengaluru 560066 Phone: (91)(80) 6670 7777 · (Click on the name of each hotel to go to the website) Click to see some of the speakers A 2 day seminar with eminent speakers from the sphere of wildlife conservation seeks to address the questions you may have across multiple facets of the topic. The two days…

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For two years now the oldest film studio in town has been home to our work… It is time to leave…but before we go… Sign-out rafiki presents a series of performances as a tribute to the space. March, 2013 Thursday 28th The Fabulous Adventures of Aditi and Friends rafiki 7pm Friday 29th Somewhat Like a Balloon Just Theatre 7pm Saturday 30th Woza Albert! rafiki 7pm Sunday 31st Full Meals Tahatto 6pm Jannal & Seethaimark Seeyakkaai Thool Koothu-p-pattarai and PERCH 7pm All performances will be at our space: c/o K K Foundation and Public Charitable Trust 48/3 (Opp. Al Ameen Hospital)…

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The warm weather is here, and it's a great time to look for some of the very common butterflies as we walk around. The butterflies that I've photographed were all clicked in either gardens near my home, or in the Valley School campus, off Kanakapura Road; so you don't have to go very far to find them!"BLUES" are small butterflies, so called because we can see the blue colour when they are flying. Here's a 6 line Blue 6 line Blue Pic: Deepa Mohan Some of the butterfly names, of course, have no "why" to them. This on, the Pioneer…

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All of us have problems with our banks from time to time. But when the problem lasts, unresolved, beyond 30 days, many of us are not aware that we can turn to the Banking Ombudsman at the Reserve Bank of India.Please click here to go to the Reserve Bank Ombudsman's website, and file your complaint. One of my techie friends was very impressed by the quality of the site...there's a provision to send the whole mail trail of your correspondence with the Bank as a pdf, too, or send a screenshot. click here for the list of Ombudsmen.Hope this helps…

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Click here for the website of an NGO called Sarvodaya. They help Bangalore citizens with issues regarding stray dogs, and implement the ABC (Animal Birth Control) process instead of killing the dogs.The mobile no. is 91 98801 19900The landline is 080- 65340127Email: info@strays.in There is no political will in Bangalore to permanently solve the issue of stray dogs; though every now and then, there are instances of feral dogs attacking, and sometimes killing, children, BBMP has not taken a single step to curb this menace. Hence, citizens have to look towards NGO's like this for help.    ⊕

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Bird watchers know that all Flycatchers catch bees, wasps, dragonflies, butterflies and other insects as part of their diet. (Indeed, so do many other birds.)So...you'd expect the personnel manning the Butterfly Park in the Bannerghatta Zoo area to know that as well. And, when they see a bird catching a butterfly, they would just catch it with a net and release it elsewhere, wouldn't you?You'd be...'dead' wrong.That's the right word to use in the circumstances.Srikant VK writes:"The employers of the butterfly park saw the flycatcher catching some butterflies,the only crime this innocent little bird did was to fill its belly…

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Once upon a flame

One of the delights in our city is to watch the various flowering trees, and at this time of the year, one of the spectacular sights is that of the Flame of the Forest (Palash...the scientific name is Butea monosperma). The name of the tree is well-deserved...the bright orange flowers of the tree look exactly as if tongues of flame were engulfing the tree. At this time, the tree sheds all its leaves, too, and the effect is stunning. But there is an even more interesting aspect to the flowering of the Flame of the Forest...that is, the flowers, and…

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Dear birding friends,A quick note to ask whether you might be interested in joining us in a funbirding event on 14-18 Feb. On those dates, birders across the world willbe taking part in the Great Backyard Bird Count (www.birdcount.org), run byCornell University's Laboratory of Ornithology.The basic idea is to spend some time (minimum of 15 min) listing all thebirds species you see, together with a rough count of each. Despite thename of the event, one can participate from anywhere -- from a balcony orrooftop or garden, to a market or farm or wetland or forest. And it doesn'tmatter if you…

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A group of ecologists and experts including Dr M B Krishna, have come up with a report called"Ruining the ecology of Hesaraghatta Lake - the role of bird photographers. From the report's introduction:"The Hesaraghatta lake bed is facing another assault. Parts of the lake bed have become barren and have been laid waste due to heavy vehicular movement on the lake bed. In this case most of the damage is due to nature photographers chasing migratory birds using cars and SUVs."A rapid assessment of the impacts caused by nature photographers driving on the dry Hesaraghatta lake bed reveals a wide…

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A different way…

Last week,a mammoth conference of psychiatrists was organized at Bangalore. The Annual Conference of the Indian Psychiatric Society, We had more than four thousand psychiatrists attendingIt was declared as a green conference and in place of the usual mementos for speakers, six hundred saplings were planted, at Turahalli Reserve Forest.The forest department organized a memorable function on the day before the event. The Indian Psychiatric Society is the first professional organization to take this initiative and I hope more will follow! Additonally, all the conference halls were named after birds!Kudos to Dr R Raguram, who is theProfessor & Head of…

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