Posts tagged environment

Cuisine from the arid earth

1 Comment read Environment & Development, Gender, Health & Science
Chunni Bishnoi with her buffalo in Guda Bishnoiyan, 22 km south-east of Jodhpur in the western Indian state of Rajasthan. Photo Credit: ©Neena Bhandari

By Neena Bhandari

Guda Bishnoiyan & Khejarli villages (Rajasthan), India, 04.03.2012 (WFS/The Hindu): Traditional western Rajasthani delicacies are fast becoming a gourmet’s delight in India and abroad. In fact, no Marwari feast is complete without the ‘exotic’ Sangari, cooked as a dry vegetable or with gravy. This fruit of the versatile Khejari (Prosopis cineraria) tree, indigenous to the vast Thar Desert, has provided nutrition and nourishment to the local communities for generations.

As the sun rises on the eastern skyline, Chunni Bishnoi, 65, begins milking her three buffaloes and three cows in the outer courtyard of her `pucca house’, shaded by the thorny Khejari trees that grow thick and green in the villages of Guda Bishnoiyan, 22 km, and Khejarli, 26 km south-east of Jodhpur in the western Indian state of Rajasthan.

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The thrill of tiger sighting: Kanha National Park

4 Comments read Environment & Development, Travel
Tiger sighting in Ranthambore National Park. Photo Credit: © Rajendra Singh Bhandari

By Neena Bhandari

Kanha (Madhya Pradesh, India) 29.11.2001 (Sydney Morning Herald): As a child I would snuggle into my father’s arms in the “watch towers” strategically positioned in wildlife sanctuaries, and watch a tiger devour its bait. We would wait for hours in the thick of the night, straining our ears to hear that familiar ruffle of leaves caused by a stealthy predator.

Over the years the practise of baiting tigers for viewing has been discontinued, but encounters with big cats are not uncommon in the 27 tiger reserves of India, where this threatened species has learnt to live with man and vehicles.

Watching a proud tigress stretching with three playful cubs frolicking around her, or a majestic tiger enjoying a siesta, slowly turning to stretch a paw and yawn, are images I have grown up with. Having had the opportunity to see tigers at close quarters in sanctuaries from Ranthambore in the west to Sunderbans in the east, Corbett in the north to Periyar in the south, the experience that sticks with me is the Kanha National Park in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

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