r/BiologyIndia

For about 18 years, a self-taught truck mechanic named Tim Friede in the United States let cobras, mambas, taipans and rattlesnakes bite him 202 times, and injected himself with their venom 856 times.

Once he took two cobra bites within an hour and slipped into a coma. Most experts called him reckless.

Then in 2025, scientists took a sample of his blood, isolated the antibodies, and produced something the world has never had: a single antivenom that works against 19 of the planet’s deadliest snakes.

The study, which was funded by the Indian government's Department of Science and Technology and held across two years (2021-2023) and five Indian states, found that 143 different species of dragonflies and damselflies inhabit the Western Ghats, with at least 40 of them being endemic to the region, meaning they are found nowhere else in the world.

But the researchers also discovered something troubling - at least 79 additional species that were previously reported in the region were not found, an almost 35% decline in the number of dragonfly and damselfly species in the Western Ghats.

Pankaj Koparde, an evolutionary ecologist who led the study, says that this could be because some of these species are extremely rare or active only in certain seasons, and were missed by the researchers. But he also says that the decline could be due to a potential loss of species, meaning some of them have become extinct.

https://worldheritageoutlook.iucn.org/explore-sites/western-ghats#:\~:text=High%20Threat-,The%20fact%20that%20so%20much%20biodiversity%20remains%20in%20the%20Western,including%20political%2C%20sociological%20and%20biological.

https://www.biotaxa.org/hn/article/view/84491

https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/eap.3058

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bengaluru/75-reduction-in-12-species-of-western-ghat-birds-report/articleshow/103075797.cms

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonfly

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_Odonata\_species\_of\_India

https://projectnoah.org/missions/dragonflies-and-damselflies-india

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damselfly

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western\_Ghats

https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1342/

Marine enthusiast Pradip Patade said, "The Blue Button is a small, jellyfish-like organism that lives a free-floating life on the sea surface. Interestingly, this is not a single animal; it is a colony of several ‘zooids'. The tentacles, feeding and digestive parts, and the central disc are all separate individuals living together as a floating colony that appears like a single creature. Blue Buttons commonly wash up on the city's beaches as the monsoon approaches."

According to experts, Blue Buttons drift wherever winds and surface currents take them. When sea temperatures rise or cyclonic winds intensify, these floating organisms are pushed closer to the shore, which can be seen as a small but visible sign of changing ocean conditions.

It is worth noting that groups such as Marine Life of Mumbai (MLOM), along with several other organisations and independent enthusiasts who regularly conduct shore walks along the city's coastline, have been actively documenting the rich and diverse marine life found along Mumbai's shores.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porpita\_porpita

https://www.indiawaterportal.org/amp/story/climate-change/blue-button-jellies-on-indias-coasts-climate-change-signals-from-the-sea

According to WHO, as of May 6, a total of 8 hantavirus cases have been reported on the cruise ship. WHO has recently updated the Hantavirus Outbreak Toolkit, sharing essential information about the deadly infection along with the latest updates.

The WHO Outbreak Toolkit is a specialised digital resource designed to standardise and accelerate the response to public health emergencies. It is primarily built for epidemiologists and field investigators working in resource-limited settings or complex emergencies where rapid, evidence-based tools are critical for saving lives.

https://www.who.int/emergencies/outbreak-toolkit/disease-outbreak-toolboxes/hantavirus-outbreak-toolbox

https://www.cdc.gov/hantavirus/about/index.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthohantavirus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_rodents

https://www.britannica.com/animal/rodent

https://www.cdc.gov/healthy-pets/rodent-control/index.html

In a striking discovery from Northeast India, scientists have documented—for the first time—a resident, breeding population of barn swallows in Manipur’s Imphal Valley, challenging the long-held belief that the species visits the region only seasonally.

The study, led by Amarjeet Kaur and Dr R. Suresh Kumar of the Wildlife Institute of India, suggests that these migratory birds may have quietly abandoned migration in this part of the country.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barn\_swallow

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Barn\_Swallow/maps-range

https://ebird.org/region/IN-MN-EI/bird-list

https://nenow.in/north-east-news/manipur/manipur-over-30-species-of-migratory-birds-sighted-at-lamphelpat-wetland-in-imphal.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imphal