Jammu and Kashmir’s hangul population registered a slight increase in the latest census in 2025, which recorded 323 individuals. An encouraging rise from 289 in 2023, hope is renewed for the survival of this species found only in the Kashmir Valley.

The hangul (Cervus hanglu hanglu), also known as the Kashmir stag, is a subspecies of the Central Asian red deer. It was once widespread in the mountains of Kashmir, parts of Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh and Pakistan. Today, the hangul is largely found only in Kashmir’s Dachigam National Park and adjoining landscapes.

Hangul are recognised by their branched antlers and thick brown coats, well-suited to the cold winters. They migrate between higher and lower altitudes, shedding and growing a fresh set of antlers each year. Their return to lower valleys signals the rutting season, when males display their antlers and lock horns with rival males in a fight for mates.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Species, the hangul is listed as critically endangered, denoting an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild. The hangul has the highest level of protection under the Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, and is also protected under the J&K Wildlife Protection Act, 1978. The species has declined sharply over the decades due to multiple pressures. Livestock grazing in Dachigam encroaches on hangul habitat and reduces food availability, while poaching for meat, skin and antlers is also a threat. Populations are also affected by a skewed sex ratio, with significantly more females than males.

While the 2025 census shows an increase, conservationists caution that the population remains small and vulnerable. In an earlier story that Mongabay-India published in 2022, scientist Khursheed Ahmad, heading the department of wildlife sciences at Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences, said, “There is a female-biased sex ratio – we have more females than males – which is not healthy. We also have a very low recruitment (addition of new fawns) in the population of hangul. These are the main ecological reasons why the population of hangul is not stabilising for the last two or three decades.”

In fact, 19 years of monitoring and a population viability analysis by conservationists concluded, in 2023, that the hangul population could potentially go extinct without interventions like monitoring calf survival and controlling free-ranging dog populations.

Read more about conservation efforts to help hangul population grow and threats faced by Dachigam National Park.

Banner image: A herd of hangul. Image by Tahir Shawl via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

A centrally-appointed committee should take over the interim decisions of state environmental impact bodies when their tenures lapse, or when they are non-functional, the Union Environment Ministry has said.

In a draft notification published on March 5, the Centre argues that such an arrangement would ensure “continuity” in decision-making as state bodies re-assemble between tenures. A centrally appointed standing body could also be responsible for “other tasks, as may be entrusted to it by the Central Government from time to time,” related to the environmental impact assessment process.

Under the Environmental Impact Assessment notification, State Environmental Impact Assessment Authorities (SEIAA) are tasked with granting environmental clearances for “category B” projects, such as leather tanning industries, small scale mining, and metallurgical processing. These authorities are advised and guided by State Expert Appraisal Committees (SEAC), with tenures of three years, extendable by one more year.

The members making up these bodies are required to have 15 years of experience in subjects like environmental management, risk assessment, life sciences, or sector specific knowledge.

According to the Centre, while the reconstitution of these bodies is normally initiated six months before the tenure ends, “delays occur due to late or incomplete submission of proposals from States.” Such delays lead to a “complete halt in the EC process,” since proposals are redirected to the centre, “leading to extended timelines and unwarranted delays in the appraisal of the projects, thereby impacting project timelines and investor confidence.”

As a counter measure, the centre has proposed extending the tenures of state bodies to four years, and setting up a centrally-appointed Standing Authority on Environment Impact Assessment (SAEIA), assisted by a Standing Committee on Environment Impact Appraisal (SCEIA), to take over clearance-related decision-making for six months – extendable by another six months.

The members of these committees are proposed to be “ex-officio Members as deemed appropriate,” by the central government.

The proposal follows several amendments to India’s environmental laws and regulations, in an attempt to cut down time taken to process clearances.

Banner image: A metallurgical furnace in Assam. Image by Don Vikro via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Species File: Exploring India’s biodiversity, one species at a time.

Flamingos are arriving late to Navi Mumbai’s wetlands this year, and researchers are linking the delay to erratic rainfall and habitat destruction.

Even so, these striking birds remain hard to miss when they do arrive. Flamingos are large wading birds, recognised for their vibrant pink plumage and long legs. They also have distinctive downturned bills that are adapted for filter feeding, which means they can feed by filtering out organic matter or nutrients suspended in water. The birds feed on organisms found at the bottom of the water body, such as crustaceans, insect larvae, and algae.

India has two primary flamingo species: the greater flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus), and the lesser flamingo (Phoeniconaias minor). According to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, the greater flamingo is listed as least concern, which indicates species that are abundant and not at the risk of extinction. The lesser flamingo, meanwhile, is listed as near threatened, with population declines linked to pollution, human intrusion and disturbance. Flamingos are protected under Schedule IV of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, which offers some protection to species that are not endangered and prohibits hunting.

In India, flamingos are found across both coastal and inland wetlands, with large populations in Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.

They are also annually seen in the creeks of Mumbai and Navi Mumbai in Maharashtra. The wetlands of Thane Creek serve as an important wintering ground, with tens of thousands of flamingos visiting every year. The birds have charmed city residents, who have spent years campaigning for legal protection of their habitats.

B.N. Kumar, director of NatConnect Foundation, a Mumbai-based not-for-profit organisation, told Mongabay-India in a 2025 story, “Flamingos tend to return to the same place year after year. If they don’t get the desired ecosystem on their usual roost site, they may become disoriented, which can lead to their death due to collisions on the road, hoardings, etc.”

Read more about flamingos in our stories on fluid dynamics behind their unique feeding behaviour, what a a flock of flamingos could indicate about the state of a wetland, and how Mumbai got a flamingo sanctuary as trade-off for the trans-harbour sea-link.

Banner image: A lesser flamingo in Mumbai. Image by Sujai.rajapaul via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

The Hindukush-Himalaya region, which holds the largest concentration of snow and ice outside the polar regions, is undergoing considerable cryospheric changes driven by rising temperatures, a new review paper says. Published in the journal Earth-Science Reviews, the review assessed 145 studies in the region’s cryosphere, finding that warming is resulting in more floods, increased peak flow in rivers, and frequent avalanches.

The region, which covers Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, China, Bhutan, and Myanmar, has warmed by 0.2–0.3°C per decade between 1980 and 2020, approximately twice the global average rate. However, these changes are not uniform. The central and eastern Himalaya lost close to 30% of snow cover between 1990 and 2020, causing altitudinal vegetation shifts of 8 to 20 metres annually. The Karakoram range, on the other hand, showed relative stability, which is “attributed to the westerly-driven winter precipitation and a coincident summer cooling effect,” which partially off-sets glacier loss, says the study — a phenomenon known as the ‘Karakoram anomaly.’

Seen across a 40 year timescale, almost no part of the Hindukush-Himalaya region has been left untouched by rising temperatures. Even as this holds true, the eastern Himalayas remain particularly underrepresented in academic research. Despite being the most vulnerable to glacier melt, studies into glacial lake expansion and Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) “are rare in the Eastern Himalaya, particularly in Bhutan and Arunachal,” the study says.

Glacial lakes have nearly doubled from 1,160 to 2,168 in the central Himalaya between 1977 and 2010. This expansion also increases the risk of GLOFs, which can have catastrophic downstream impacts. The study also notes that 681 avalanche incidents between 1982 and 2022 resulted in over 3,100 deaths, with frequency rising after 2010.

Snow and glacier melt currently contribute between 33 and 42% of annual river flow in major basins, supporting hundreds of millions of people downstream. Projections suggest peak runoff will occur around 2050 in most basins, after which meltwater contributions are expected to decline, impacting hydropower generation and raising longer-term questions about water availability. The Yarkand and Hotan basins in western China have already achieved peak flow, says the study.

Covering approximately one million square kilometres in the region, permafrost is degrading at rates that are destabilising slopes and affecting high-altitude infrastructure in the Tibetan Plateau. Active layer thickness, the uppermost layer of permafrost affected soils, is increasing by 2–23 cm annually in some areas.

Using satellite imagery and geospatial technologies to monitor changes in hard-to-reach regions can be revolutionary, says the study, particularly for the Siachen glaciers in Karakoram, Chhota Shigri, Langtang, Gurudongmar, Gomukh in the Himalaya, Chitral in Hindukush, and Wakhan in Pamir, which are not adequately monitored.

The integration of indigenous knowledge, improved transboundary cooperation, and high-resolution monitoring are highlighted as priorities for more effective adaptation planning. “Transboundary co-operation is the need of the hour. Joint monitoring frameworks, multi- lateral disaster frameworks, and data sharing protocols are essential to develop,” it says.

Banner image: The Hindu Kush mountains seen from Pakistan. Image by Ninara via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).

A sparkle of fireflies lighting up the vast expanse of the night sky is what certain nostalgic memories are made of. Despite these bioluminescent beetles dominating our collective imagination and their romanticisation in Indian culture, art and literature, how much do we really know about fireflies?

In what could be a first, a new paper published in Zootaxa compiles a comprehensive checklist of Indian fireflies (Coleoptera: Lampyridae), documenting 92 species across four subfamilies and 27 genera. The checklist shows very high endemism and a broad but uneven distribution across India’s biogeographic zones. The researchers surveyed available literature on the species from 1881 to October 2025 and found that 60.86% of the Indian firefly fauna is endemic to the country.

The lead author, Parvez, shares that the lack of information on most firefly species in India while he was preparing for his Ph.D. is what prompted him to dig deeper into the largely unknown world of Indian fireflies. “Most of the species were not studied after the first detection,” he informs Mongabay-India.

Luciolinae is the dominant subfamily with 37 species, followed by Ototretinae with 31 species, Lampyrinae with 17 species, and Cyphonocerinae with one species. Luciolinae and Ototretinae are the most diverse subfamilies, with 11 firefly genera each. The study also lists each species with its current name, original combination, synonyms, literature citations, and distribution within India and other countries.

Most species occur in more than one Indian state, and at least 22 states plus one Union Territory have documented fireflies, although 17 species (18.47%) lack precise locality data within India. The Western Ghats has the highest occurrence of firefly species at 25.33%, followed by the North East, Gangetic Plain, Coast, and Deccan Peninsula at 22.66%, 17.33%, and 13.33%, respectively, according to the paper. The Trans-Himalayas and Himalayas each have 1.33% of fireflies in their zones, while the Islands have 2.66% of firefly species. Desert and semi-arid zones have no fireflies recorded.

The study highlights that despite their high endemism and ecological importance, basic resources such as complete surveys, updated national checklists, and conservation assessments are still largely missing for Indian fireflies. Parvez says that since this is the first checklist of Indian fireflies, it can serve as a baseline for future studies. “This research extends far beyond India, offering vital support to neighbouring countries where firefly studies remain scarce or non-existent,” Parvez says, adding that as a regional coordinator for South Asia (IUCN SSC Firefly Specialist Group) and the founder of the Fireflies Asian Association, he frequently encounters requests for firefly identification and data from across the region. “Our new checklist, identification services, and planned academic repository — backed by centres in Kerala and New Delhi — will fill these gaps, fostering collaboration and conservation throughout Asia.”

Banner image: Abscondita perplexa. Image by Parvez.

Species File: Exploring India’s biodiversity, one species at a time.

Across India’s semi-arid grasslands and scrublands, a carnivore roams and howls. An apex predator, it keeps herbivore populations in check. But as its habitats shrink and human presence grows, this carnivore is beginning to change how it lives and moves across the landscape.

The Indian wolf (Canis lupus pallipes) has been in the news recently after a series of suspected attacks on humans in the Bahraich district, Uttar Pradesh, echoing similar incidents reported in 2024.

Understanding wolf behaviour is becoming increasingly important, as shrinking habitats bring people and wolves into closer contact and raise the risk of conflict.

The Indian wolf is a genetically distinct subspecies and possibly the oldest surviving wolf lineage. While the data on wolves in India remains insufficient, a 2022 study found that the country’s wolf population could be as small as 2,500 to 3,800 individuals. In India, it is protected under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, providing the highest level of protection, prohibiting trade, hunting and poaching.

Researchers also note that limited research on Indian wolf populations hinders effective conservation strategies.

The loss of grasslands and scrublands poses a serious threat to the Indian wolf, leading to behavioural changes such as increased livestock predation due to declining natural prey. Wolves have also been observed suppressing their howls near human settlements and interbreeding with free-ranging dogs.

In an earlier Mongabay-India story published in 2024, Sougata Sadhukhan, an assistant professor at the Institute of Environment Education and Research, Bharati Vidyapeeth University, Pune, said, “It is crucial to grasp these intricate changes, not solely to preserve wolves but also to safeguard their ecological melody and the wild symphony they contribute to.”

Read more about the Indian wolf in our stories on changing howl patterns, how Indigenous traditions shape wolf survival, and the need for region-specific wolf conservation strategies.

Banner image: The Indian wolf. Image by Vadyarupal via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).