Posts by: Kalyan Varma

So far, part of the money that was raised by the calendars has gone for the following causes. The Soligas call the Black eagle ‘The darkness of the Shola” Black eagle study – The black eagle is a very rare, less studied bird of prey. In BR hills, we found a pair nesting very close to human settlement. The nest was getting disturbed regularly and this was also an amazing opportunity to study the nesting cycle of this amazing bird of prey. So with the money pool, I was able to hire two young naturalists from the Soliga tribe to…

The event was excellent. Some of the worlds best wildlife editors/directors/script-writers were there. The first highlight was Mike Salisbury. He is the guy who produced all the ‘Life’ series of David Attenborough and if David Attenborough was the face on the camera, he was the guy who was behind the camera all along. He agreed to get some stuff signed by David and mail it back to me when he gets back. He was so wonderful, I really wish he was my own grandfather. Meeting Jane Goodall was something else. Her talk was so powerful, almost everyone in the audience…

Sorry about no updates lately. I’ve been on the road mostly. The Scorpio is less than 20 days old and I have already done close to 3000 KM on it. It has started to make some funny noises here and there too. I’m off to Delhi later today to spend time at Wildcreen India. Finally I’m getting to meet the legendary Jane Goodall and Mike Salisbury at the event. Anyone else coming for this event there ?

After wanting it for more than a year, it was finally time to do the jump for the new Mahindra Scorpio. Too bad the new Scorpio does not come in green, so I went for the next best color – Ivory Grey. I just don’t have budget right now to paint it all green. The vehicle comes with 4-wheel drive, which is perfect for all my wildlife needs. The color is quite decent for forest use anyway. The CRDe engine is very quiet and Mahindra finally fixed the suspension issues that the original Scorpios had. There is enough place at…

She took me, others and a lot of gear to some of the highest peaks in south India, rubbed shoulders with many wild elephants and came head to head with wild tigers. After serving me for 5 years, its finally time for her to retire. Lot of other things will be new for me this year. A new job and a new project, a new vehicle and lot more new things. One of the new year resolutions is to keep this blog more active this year.

It’s the worst thing that US has done since the post-911 attacks. Not just the execution, but the fact that the actual execution was filmed and telecasted all around the world. The scene somehow was much more gruesome than all those al-qaeda be-heading videos. I just saw the video of the execution and can’t help but think that George Bush deserves that more than Saddam. George Bush killed more people than saddam indirectly and has put the whole world in an unstable future. Muslim countries will unite even more to fight against the US now and if I was living…

Google Maps just updated their database to include streets, roads and place names of all major cities in India. Check it out. Now its time to see India specific mashups.

Lately, I have been observing the beggars at all the traffic junctions in Bangalore when I’m stuck for a long time in traffic. I’ve noticed a very important pattern. At any big traffic junction, the traffic at the signal has to wait anywhere from 120 to 180 seconds these days. A beggar can cover atleast 30 vehicles in this time and atleast 1 in 5, give the beggars some money. This money these days is anywhere from Rs 1 to Rs 5. I’ve even seen a guy give out Rs 100 to a beggar. So at a 3 min traffic…

This was long time pending. Last month, I got a chance to make a quick trip to Munnar and Thattekad with the excellent bird guide – Eldose. I decided to go on this trip in the last min, as Eldose called me up and promised to show me two of the rarest bird species in south India – The Broad-tailed grassbird and the White-bellied shortwing. I took the next flight out of Bangalore to Cochin to meet him as my friends Ramki, Swarna and Saurab were planning to go there as well. Traveling in low-cost airline is great for personal…

The internet is a very dull place at 3am.