يحاول ذهب - حر
A sizeable threat
May 01, 2025
|Down To Earth
Increased interaction with human habitations has resulted in elephants contracting diseases not usually associated with the animal
CAN ELEPHANTS be too obese to be healthy? Evidently, they can be. In July 2023, forest officials captured a makhna (tuskless male) elephant in Tamil Nadu's Coimbatore district and translocated it to Valparai forest in the Western Ghats. During the translocation, they found that the 40-year-old animal weighed 6,000 kg, when the average weight of an elephant his age is 4,500-5,000 kg. The known crop raider was shifted many times before being sent to the forest.
Crop-raider elephants are likely to be obese due to their sedentary lifestyle. “Elephants walk long distances, feeding slowly on leaves and barks over the course of 16-18 hours a day,” says Rajesh Kumar, a forest veterinarian with Mudumalai Tiger Reserve in Tamil Nadu. “But crop-raiding elephants often feed in the same geography and consume a lot of nutrient-rich food in 3-4 hours. They then sleep the rest of the day, allowing fat accumulation,” he explains. Kumar says he has come across four such cases in 2020-23.
India has an estimated 28,000-30,000 elephants, as per Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change’s “Elephant Corridors of India 2023” report, and the animal enjoys the highest protection under the Wild Life Protection Act, 1972. But elephants have been found to be increasingly afflicted with diseases associated with humans. For instance, a study published in
هذه القصة من طبعة May 01, 2025 من Down To Earth.
اشترك في Magzter GOLD للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة، وأكثر من 9000 مجلة وصحيفة.
هل أنت مشترك بالفعل؟ تسجيل الدخول
المزيد من القصص من Down To Earth
Down To Earth
Collective denial
A decade on from the Paris Agreement, countries are planning more fossil fuel production than before, putting global climate ambitions at increasing risk
4 mins
October 16, 2025
Down To Earth
BUILT TO BINGE
Over the past few decades, food companies have exploited basic human instincts to peddle ultra-processed products. Engineered to hijack the brain's reward system, these foods are silently fuelling a new addiction epidemic, and driving rising rates of obesity and chronic diseases. Urgent policy action is needed to reclaim control over our food environment.
19 mins
October 16, 2025
Down To Earth
Another farmer quits
THIS DUSSEHRA, Pitabasha did not go for the customary sighting of the Indian Roller, or tiha, as it is called in Odia. The bird is believed to grant wishes, and every year thousands of people flock to farms, fields and forests hoping to glimpse it and make a wish. But the 30-year-old farmer from Matupali village in Odisha stayed back. From that day, he also stopped calling himself a farmer.
2 mins
October 16, 2025
Down To Earth
What the H-1B visa angst reveals about India
It is odd that India strenuously promotes the exodus of its tech talent while failing to foster innovation at home
4 mins
October 16, 2025
Down To Earth
REDUCED TO INSIGNIFICANCE
On October 12, the Right to Information (RTI) Act completed 20 years. Activists who monitor the Act, and former information commissioners, say that amendments by successive governments have rendered the law toothless. As per Central Information Commission's latest annual report (2023-24), the number of RTI applications rejected in the year was over 67,615—the highest ever. BHAGIRATH curates a conversation on what went wrong with the law that was sought to bring transparency and accountability in governance.
14 mins
October 16, 2025
Down To Earth
'Depopulation would mean fewer people contributing to advancement of knowledge'
Trends show that in a few decades, global population will begin to shrink. Once depopulation starts, no one knows how to stop it in a sustained way, write DEAN SPEARS and MICHAEL GERUSO, associate professors of economics, University of Texas at Austin, US, in their recent book, After the Spike. The authors, who are also economic demographers, argue that population decline will be detrimental to global progress and that a smaller population would not necessarily be better for the environment. In an interview with ADITYA MISRA, they say that the time to talk about depopulation is now because the search for a solution could take decades. Excerpts:
5 mins
October 16, 2025
Down To Earth
Rebirth of Sukapaika
A cardiologist revives a dying river in Odisha with help from 425 riparian villages
2 mins
October 16, 2025
Down To Earth
Monsoon withdrawal stalls after early start
AFTER UNLEASHING unusually heavy spells of rain across northwest India, the southwest monsoon began withdrawing three days earlier than normal, on September 14.
1 min
October 16, 2025
Down To Earth
Despair follows deluge
As floodwaters recede in Punjab, communities are left with ruined fields, lost livelihoods and an uncertain future. VIVEK MISHRA travels through the seven flood-hit districts to gauge the scale of the crisis.
6 mins
October 16, 2025
Down To Earth
Bone dry to soaking wet
Farmers in Marathwada were ill-prepared for the intense rainfall that hit the perennially water-starved region.
4 mins
October 16, 2025
Listen
Translate
Change font size