Ishita Tyagi

IPS’24 | IFS’22 🇮🇳 | B-Tech NIT-H 2019

[Himanshu Tyagi, IFS @Himanshutyg_ifs]

When an unstoppable evolutionary urge meets thick skin.

It highlights the gap between instinctual predatory drive and biomechanical reality. The predator-like ocelot relies on a nape bite to sever the prey's spinal cord or puncture the throat.

However, the ocelot's jaw gape and canine length limit the size of prey it can target.

The thick layer of subcutaneous fat is the biggest armour of an adult pig. The ocelot's canines cannot penetrate it.

For this adult pig, the bite of an ocelot feels like little more than a gentle nudge.

Cats operate on fixed action patterns. When they spot a moving mammal, the predatory sequence activates: stalk-->pounce-->bite.

Even if the ocelot senses the prey is too large for her canines, the instinct locks her into the loop regardless.

In the wild, an ocelot rarely takes down prey weighing more than 10 kg. Attacking a domestic pig over 100 kg signals the hard limits of an evolutionary hunting strategy built for a very different prey size.

[Himanshu Tyagi, IFS @Himanshutyg_ifs]

Oxpeckers don't provide free help to buffalo--> they charge for it in blood.

Oxpeckers are obsessed with blood. Parasites feeding on wild buffalo concentrate blood near the skin and become easy food for oxpeckers.

On the surface, it looks like oxpeckers are generous doctors for the buffalo. But the devil is in the details.

It has been observed that oxpeckers often prolong the healing of buffalo wounds. They actively reopen old wounds and feed on the blood. They turn from helper to parasite.

Yet megafauna like buffalo and rhinos tolerate oxpeckers --> not necessarily because they remove parasites, but because they provide situational awareness.

Buffalo and rhinos have poor eyesight, particularly in the tall grasses of the African savanna. So while oxpeckers feed on their blood, they deliver timely alarm calls when large predators like lions or leopards are nearby.

The buffalo essentially pays a small blood tax for the larger benefit of an early warning system against predators.

Nature is not as simple as it seems.

[Himanshu Tyagi, IFS @Himanshutyg_ifs]

The venom of the Asian vine snake is almost useless against us, but lethal for frogs and lizards. The reason is highly targeted evolutionary design.

Asian vine snakes are rear-fanged. Their venom-conducting teeth sit at the very back of the upper jaw, beneath their eyes.

The fangs are not hollow tubes but open grooves running down the front of the fang.

To envenom prey, they have to chew and work the fangs forward to let the venom teeth engage.

These snakes have a very small gape, so they cannot bite and chew a human hand unless you deliberately offer it. Their deep-seated fangs simply cannot reach our deeper tissues.

Unlike cobras or vipers, they cannot pump venom at high pressure through hollow fangs. Instead, they deliver venom through capillary action --> slow and dependent on sustained chewing to be effective.

Even if you let an Asian vine snake chew on you for a while, you would likely feel nothing more than mild swelling or slight discomfort.

So, this strategy of envenomization is good for small cold-blooded animals like frogs or geckos, but not for humans.

Nature built them for life in the trees --> where human encounters are rare & prey is small.

[Ishita Tyagi @ishitarules]

@1amkais There always has to be a plan B ready!

[Ishita Tyagi @ishitarules]

Last day of our college and one of our lady professors told us one final message before parting, that made me take the “leap of faith” for CSE preparation instead of going in for that “lucrative placement offer”-

[Ishita Tyagi @ishitarules]

“Don’t crave for a “fast success”. True success takes years to build up. It may even take you 5 years or more from today to reach to your desired goal, but always chose that path where you see yourself happy in for the rest of your life.”

And that was it!

[Ishita Tyagi @ishitarules]

@Himanshutyg_ifs But sir Ghibli is fun 🤭

[Ishita Tyagi @ishitarules]

When Nani ji’s surprise visit makes your day!

[Ishita Tyagi @ishitarules]

The best kind of studying is when you don't realise that you are studying. You are just totally lost into what is being read and comprehended by the mind and in awe of the information you get to learn and acknowledge.

[Ishita Tyagi @ishitarules]

@KabeeDave It's a dry stone check dam

[Ishita Tyagi @ishitarules]

Crushed stones. Open area. Lesser trees around. Can you guess what is being constructed in here?

[Ishita Tyagi @ishitarules]

@shalabh_tanwar Many unauthorised people may take the new routes to escape checkposts for entry, exit. They may also carry waste material and pollute. Also controlling their footfall will be hard. If we want only let's say 150 people a day, then others may take new routes to go to same place.

[Ishita Tyagi @ishitarules]

@abhishek8927 In planning stage!

[Ishita Tyagi @ishitarules]

@shalabh_tanwar All points have been thought about but new routes is not the solution as it could harm the ecosystem. Rather focus is on footfall controlling.

[Ishita Tyagi @ishitarules]

@venkateshhere But that is not something all tourist would want. Junk/healthy food is a personal choice.

[Ishita Tyagi @ishitarules]

@Immortal0196 No our focus is not luxury tourism, it is by how much we can increase sustainability in the area without polluting it.

[Ishita Tyagi @ishitarules]

@scriptingtrails That’s the whole point of eco-tourism. To preserve our natural places better. To have limit in footfall and plastic generated. To have self -sustaining model.

[Ishita Tyagi @ishitarules]

@Anish976 Can you suggest some good solutions?

[Ishita Tyagi @ishitarules]

@mutentity Man-made fires have to stop.

[Ishita Tyagi @ishitarules]

@MPutinwa The majority of problem lies not really in early detection and monitoring but to reach to the site (HP being hilly region, sites becomes more steep) and tackle the rapid fire spread. It is hard to extinguish it by any means, the fuel due to dead and dry matter supports the fire.