Category: Urban Fauna
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Sightings of Lesser Whistling Ducks in the middle of the city amidst Corona lockdown
Fizala Tayebulla Most of us have hopefully managed to access some secure place for the emergency lockdown brought upon by the Corona virus pandemic. I, for one was fortunately able to travel back home to Guwahati, Assam timely, a few days before the travel ban in India. Taking a while to settle down at home…
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Birding for an Amateur
Divya Mehra Every February, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology organises ‘The Great Backyard Bird Count’ (GBBC), a worldwide citizen science event encouraging birders, students, and the general public to count and identify birds found in their surrounding areas. The event is a fun, and easy way of engaging bird watchers from all age groups in…
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Monkey Business: Expressing Intentions and Emotions
Rashmi Singh* & Ajay Immanuel Gonji A few days ago, an email thread on the student mailing group of Ambedkar University Delhi, Kashmere Gate (henceforth AUDKG) was particularly interesting. The subject of the discussion was not academic, political or social in nature, but was actually over food! Apparently, a plate of noodles was left abandoned…
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The Last Migration
Vijaylakshmi Suman Cities are considered to be concentrated centres of production, consumption, and waste disposal that drive land change. They have also been spaces of several global environmental problems. Most of the cities have historically been established along rivers and deltas in order to have easy access to water. These waterbodies have been modified and…
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Nocturnal City
Ajay Immanuel Gonji I was awakened by the mild but discernible honk of a vehicle and soon realized that the bus that I was travelling in had come to a halt. I looked out of the glass window from my reclining seat but could only see a dense growth of vegetation shimmering from the faint…
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Dhanauri: A Bird Habitat Amidst Human Habitation
Himanshu Choudhery The Dhanauri wetland is a small but important wetland located in Greater Noida, Gautam Buddha Nagar district, Uttar Pradesh, close to the Okhla bird sanctuary and Surajpur wetland. The wetland is surrounded by several villages, namely, Dhanauri, Amipur Bangar, Thasrana, Gadana and Bhatta. The wetland, which is mostly composed of marshes, is a…
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It takes Two to Tango
Kartik Chugh For thousands of years, humans and other animal species have accompanied each other with a strong bond. Human-animal relationship has been prevalent in the course of human history and is rooted in our co-evolution. The companion species which were not part of the same ecological niche became a part of an evolutionary process…
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A Bird in Hand Worth Protecting
Himanshu Choudhery With an escalating human population, due to high rates of migration from rural to urban areas, cities around the world are becoming very populated and polluted. This influx of people in urban areas has led to an overall reduction in green cover as natural spaces are converted into residential areas to accommodate the…
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Human-generated Food and Urban Wildlife
Ajay Immanuel Gonji In an earlier blog post that I had written, I talked about how urban wildlife depends on a unique combination of naturally occurring and human-generated food. In most cities of the globe, it is not uncommon to witness birds and mammals benefitting from anthropogenic food resources. This food may be derived either…
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Camera Trapping in Dheerpur Wetland Project Site
Ajay Immanuel Gonji Every year, during the monsoon season, the Dheerpur Wetland Project (DWP) site undergoes a drastic transformation in its appearance. Torrential rains and stormwater flowing into the wetland from surrounding areas lead to flooding in most parts of the wetland. During this time, the DWP site also serves as a habitat for a…