“But you will not be finding any birds singing in that area sir!” The Indian National Parks officer smiled reassuringly at me from behind his desk.
My heart sank. “How do you know?” I replied.
“It is part of my area, as Range Field Officer for that park, and I never hear any birds in that place.”
“But [...]

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A week later, and we have a crazy plan taking shape.
In this time we have crossed Orissa, travelling firstly to Kotagar forest in the southwest, and then Sunaberra in the far west of the state. The latter in particular has been fascinating and given us some lovely recordings. However somewhere along the many kilometres of [...]

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Shiva sleeps in the vehicle, and we often feel embarrassed to wake him predawn. but this morning he is up at 4.30 knocking on our door. The air is still, and stars shine through the branches overhead, so conditions are good. Half an hour later we are off, heading out of the guesthouse compound and [...]

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Back at the ‘Bison Room’, a busload of Indian picnickers has arrived out front, and any peace is shattered by the excited screams of children and a boombox Bollywood soundtrack. The riverfront at Tikapada is a popular picnic spot, so we can anticipate more of this in the coming days.Tweet

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We drive round a corner to find a dozen villagers running along the road ahead of us. They cast anxious glances behind them as they scatter, but smile as we pull alongside. An animated conversation ensues with our driver, Shiva. “Elephant!” he reports. They have just seen an elephant in the fields nearby and [...]

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The story of how we came to make this recording begins not in the depths of the forest, but like many of our endeavours in India, in a major city, chasing down bureaucrats.Tweet

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