Sallekhana: For the unaware, fasting to death may seem painful but it is one of the sacred tenets of Jainism. A tall, lean man with a visible rib cage lies on the bed with his left leg slightly folded towards his right leg. The elderly man is surrounded by Jain nuns who offer prayers, holding...
Native rice varieties of Tamil Nadu seems to be everywhere yet actually only somewhere. Rice has been closely associated with the cultural life of people since the Sangam era. Tamil Nadu had a great collection of native landraces (varieties) of rice, but they all lost their importance with the...
Climate change is his all consuming life passion and he will tour TN soon to create awareness on the catastrophe that awaits humanity unless something is done now. In 2020, Chetan Singh Solanki, a professor at IIT Bombay, applied for a long leave for 11 years. He also decided not to visit his...
Many take up the job of a housemaid to take care of their family but A Meena does it to take care of her 14 dogs. The money that she gets from the three houses where she works is used for buying food for the dogs. Meena has been living with the dogs for more than 24 years, and there is a...
The recent TN budget promised to make Jain, Buddhist religious sites in Tamil Nadu world-class tourist centers. These sites now have poor access, have little or no facilities. Jainism was once popular across today’s Tamil Nadu. The abandoned and neglected Jain monuments across the state stand...
Botanists are reviving Kovai Manjack, a rare plant with likely medicinal value in the Coimbatore region. In 2001, when G Kunhikannan joined the Institute of Forest Genetics and Tree Breeding (IFGTB) in Coimbatore, he noticed a plant with creamy white flowers and orange berries in the botanical...
The 12th Edition of Tamiraparani Waterbird Count (TWC) 2022, which covered mostly the winged visitors around the irrigation tanks in Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi and Tenkasi, showed that the birding sites need urgent attention. The survey recorded at least 28,831 birds of 69 species and three new...
