OK, this might come as a shocker, but yeah, sriramb and me are starting a security consulting startup. As sriram points out, we need a good name for which a .com domain is available. We have been breaking our head’s over it for a while, but you know how it is coming up with good names. So if you have any idea’s do pitch in. We will give away one stock of our company to you if you have the winning name 🙂 More details about this coming soon … Update: The contest is closed and the winners (if any)…

It’s that time of the year, when we pack our bags and chase the monsoon that’s about to hit us this week. After last year‘s successful monsoon chase, me and yathin have decided to do it again and this time Vijay Cavale will be with us as well (fus, you will be missed). This year, we are planning to drive upto Anamalais starting early tomorrow morning and spend 5 days exploring the thick rain forests around the place. I hope to shoot some of the most endangered and endemic species in India over there. The monsoon is expected to hit…

These ants are called the jumping ants because they really jump in the air when they need to escape or when they need to catch prey. They are a very large size ants and can give a nasty bite to humans. Another interesting thing about this ant is that unlike regular ants, these use large objects around them like tree’s, houses etc for navigation. The ant is even known to follow direction based on the position of the sun. This shot is my best macro shot till date and I managed to get it just at the right time. Look…

Jungle Lodges is conducting the 3 day level 1 naturalist training program later this month. This is the same program that I went through late last year. I know many folks have asked me regarding this, so here you go and remember that there are very limited seats. You can lookup the schedule here If you’re interested, contact : Avinash K Jha (avinash@junglelodges.com) [cell: 9341353112]

I have to get a anti-rabies shot today. All thank’s to this naughty rascal who decided to bite me after playing with me for an hour yesterday. This creature is the Indian Gerbil, a norturnal animal of the Indian forests.

Something interesting happened yesterday which I think will have a long term effect in this jungle. The local District forest officer(DFO) called me and asked me to come over for a meeting with Atree yesterday morning. I knew Atree was into good biodiversity research, so I jumped at the offer and decided to attend the meeting. At the meeting there was also Dr Sudershan (Many people might have heard off him) who runs a NGO named VGKK at BR hills which looks into Tribal welfare issues, The District Conservator of forest and lot of other folks who have a active…