IN MY YOUNGER DAYS, a drone denoted a male bee without a stinger. He had a cushy life, mating with the queen, being fed by worker bees and hanging out with his mates. But his end was something no playboy would want to experience. Ejected from the hive by workers, and dying hungry, lonely, scared….
The primary meaning of the verb has undergone a radical change in my lifetime. Now drones are present at weddings, along international borders, under the sea, over crop fields… and on battlefields. The recent Ukrainian swarm, which stung Russian air assets, is an excellent example.
After the name of the operation—Spider’s Web or Spiderweb—was revealed, an editor on THE WEEK’s desk reminded me of that poem from 1828, ‘The Spider and the Fly’ by Mary Howitt. “So he wove a subtle web, in a little corner, sly,/ And set his table ready, to dine upon the fly.” Verses that almost capture Ukraine’s 18 months of planning.
Senior Assistant Editor Sanjib Kr Baruah writes about drones (the mechanical kind) and how militaries worldwide are grappling to fight this unmanned aerial vehicle challenge. The article has an interview with Dr Samir V. Kamat, chairman, Defence Research Development Organisation, and a guest column by Brigadier P.S. Ramesh, a retired officer who has been at the forefront of unmanned aerial systems for a long time now.
But then, enough of spiders and drones. Let’s talk leopards. June 5 being World Environment Day, this issue brings you closer to India’s most elusive cat and a breathtakingly beautiful animal at that—the snow leopard. Photo Editor Bhanu Prakash Chandra travelled to Ladakh to photograph the cat and to speak with people who are at the forefront of man-animal conflict in those high-altitude deserts.
The beginning of the article reads like one of those Jim Corbett tales where man is pitted against a shadowy animal who has everything to its advantage—the terrain, its senses and feline guile. Bhanu’s first sight of the grey ghost of the Himalayas was a tuft of creamy fur stuck on the rafter of a cowshed. I hope you will enjoy the article and learn to cherish a world populated by all creatures great and small.
Speaking of a world filled with diversity, Special Correspondent Rahul Devulapalli writes about S. Prasanna Sree, who created scripts for 19 tribal languages. Sree is Andhra Pradesh’s first tribal woman vice chancellor. She heads the Adikavi Nannaya University in Rajamahendravaram, known earlier as Rajahmundry.
The mistress of scripts has her seat in an apt town, I would say. Rajahmundry gave India its first swadeshi fountain pens—the Ratnamson pens by K.V. Ratnam & Sons. They still make pens, and owners range from Mahatma Gandhi to former German chancellor Angela Merkel, who got it as a gift from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Frankly, wild animals are far closer to us than we realise. Recently, my brother-in-law had an unusual guest at his home in Coonoor, the Nilgiris. In the middle of the night, he heard a racket in the kitchen and padded in to investigate. There was a bear in the pantry.
Old Baloo had ripped off the kitchen door and followed his nose straight to the room with all the goodies. He visited the house the next day, too. Talk of uninvited guests.
I might not be visiting Coonoor in a hurry, I suppose. There is not enough jungle there for a bear and a lion, you see.