Mridula Chari

1 month ago | frontline.thehindu.com | Mihir Godbole |Saba Naqvi |Mridula Chari |Vaishna Roy

The grey wolf is many things to many people in India. For ecologists and conservationists, it is an endangered apex predator that needs to be protected. For historians and anthropologists, iconography associated with wolves usually represents the untameable forces of nature. For pastoralists and livestock keepers, the wolf is a sworn enemy. For the rest of us, the lore of the big bad wolf is etched into our imagination by tales we read as children.

Jul 24, 2024 | frontline.thehindu.com | Kanika Sharma |Mitali Mukherjee |Rishika Pardikar |Mridula Chari

“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly,” said the American speculative fiction writer C.J. Cherryh. But, is that not the struggle? An editor helps shape stray words into a book. Sadly, with the lack of good editing programmes and the low pay incentives in the profession, the clan of editors is becoming rare in India and is inaccessible to many, even if they are available.

Jul 23, 2024 | frontline.thehindu.com | Mridula Chari |Mitali Mukherjee |Rishika Pardikar |Deepa Reddy

State governments and the Centre were caught on the back foot as they scrambled to implement heat action plans (HAPs) this summer as parts of India reeled under heatwaves, which killed 58 people in New Delhi alone. The HAP provides guidelines to the State or district authorities on what they can, and should, do to mitigate the impact of a heatwave.

Jun 5, 2023 | atlasobscura.com | Mridula Chari

This story was originally published in Undark and appears here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. In 2018, news spread around Saroj Duru’s village that four elephants had gathered at a nearby lake. Such creatures didn’t typically visit her region in central India—they were known to stay further north in more forested habitats—and so, out of curiosity, Duru and her neighbors walked down to see them.

May 10, 2023 | worldcrunch.com | Mridula Chari |Pierre Haski

In 2018, news spread around Saroj Duru’s village that four elephants had gathered at a nearby lake. Such creatures didn’t typically visit her region in central India — they were known to stay further north in more forested habitats — and so, out of curiosity, Duru and her neighbors walked down to see them. The elephants rested in the water as people jostled at the shore, trying to get a closer look. Others climbed trees for a better view.