Welcome To
Centre for Urban Ecology and Sustainability
Our Mission
The Centre for Urban Ecology and Sustainability (CUES) aims to address urban ecological issues with a view to offering solutions, and develop a skilled cohort of professionals who actively engage in, and find solutions for urban ecological challenges. The Centre serves as a focal point where researchers, government & non-governmental, citizens and private agencies converge and participate in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of sustainable environmental projects in cities. CUES collaborates actively with other schools and centres in AUD like the School of Human Ecology, School of Development Studies (SDS), School of Design (SDS), Centre for Community Knowledge (CCK) on areas of common interests. The Centre envisages to build linkages with teaching and research programmes within the University to provide students with hands-on learning, field practicum and engaged scholarship opportunities. The Centre hosts interactions and dialogues between Universities and other organizations in the city across thematics in urban sustainability.
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Our Blogs
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To Restore or not to Restore!
Vijaylakshmi The importance and need of ecological restoration has been discussed over and over again. It is one tool that assists in the recovery of an ecosystem that has either been degraded, damaged or destroyed. Where humans are considered to be agents of exploiting nature, ecological restoration is considered to be a technical task to…
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Alien in the Forest
By Sonali Chauhan “If a forest isn’t replacing itself, it’s a garden. Just standing back and letting trees grow is not going to work.” – Dr. Robert J. Warren Delhi, the capital of India, enjoys a special place in history. Situated on the alluvial plain of Yamuna, it is a unique landscape. To the south-west…
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Campus Bird Count 2017
The Centre for Urban Ecology and Sustainability (CUES) participated in the 2017 Campus Bird Count (CBC) held between 17 February and 20 February, counting birds at the Dheerpur, Rohini, Karampura and Kashmere Gate campuses of Ambedkar University Delhi (AUD). Prior to the event, an orientation was conducted by Prof. Geetha Venkataraman on 15 February 2017.…
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Sowing in the sky
By Meenakshi Singh The year was 1999-2000, Dr. Despommier was giving a class on medical ecology. He asked his students to design rooftop gardens in Manhattan that could feed its entire population. But the calculations showed that available area would not be sufficient to grow enough food. The resultant idea was of farming or growing…
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Role of History in Restoration Ecology amidst Rapid Environmental Change
Vijaylakshmi Suman Each place has a story to communicate, and ‘History’ does the needful. What I find interesting in history is that it gives an insight into the process of transformation which has shaped the present conditions. It plays a crucial role in the process of practising ecological restoration. The basic idea of ecological restoration…
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Fauna in the City – Part II
Ajay Immanuel Gonji About three weeks ago, a solitary male leopard was found loitering in the national capital’s Yamuna Biodiversity Park (YBP) – one of the two biodiversity parks (the other being the Aravalli Biodiversity Park) that has been established in the capital by the Delhi Development Authority. According to park officials, the animal is…
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Chasing Rains
Amit Kaushik It all started with pitching a tent! According to objectives of the Dheerpur Wetland Park (DWP) project, massive on-site plantation was to be carried out in the monsoon of 2016. However, when the first rains of the season did arrive, we were slightly unprepared for plantation. To begin with, we did not have…
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Soil Inoculation as Steering Tool for Restoration Process
Vijaylakshmi Suman In urban spaces, where major regions are controlled by humans, the degradation of ecosystems is likely to happen. In such circumstances, ecological restoration offers a mode for recovery so that biodiversity can be protected. However, the process is neither easy nor linear, due to abiotic (for example eutrophication) and biotic (for example composition…
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Huge Opportunity and Even Bigger Challenges: Wetland Restoration in the Urban
Ajay Immanuel Gonji It has been a little over a year and a half since Ambedkar University Delhi (AUD) entered into a management agreement with the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to restore a small relict of the Jahangirpuri group of wetlands. The Dheerpur Wetland Park (DWP) is an ambitious collaborative project between AUD and DDA…
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Ecological Restoration and Gender
By Meenakshi Singh Changing global climate patterns, receding forests, intensive industrialization, urbanization and concretization have all led to awakening of environmental conscience discussed by people like Aldo Leopold (in Sand County Almanac and The Land Ethic) and Rachel Carsen (in The Silent Spring). Concerns for environment have been on the rise since late twentieth century…
CUES Restoration Project Site: Dheerpur Wetland, Delhi
Description:
Restoration of Dheerpur Wetlands: A collaboration of CUES, AUD & DDA
The marshes and wetlands of the Yamuna region once extended from Azadpur to the present-day banks of the river. This region has been heavily drained and undergone an extensive land-use change during the last fifty years. Remnants of once widespread historical marshes can now only be seen near Jahangirpuri, Dheerpur and Burari. Since wetlands are increasingly appreciated globally and nationally for their socio-ecological functions and provisions, the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) decided to restore the wetlands of Dheerpur.
Fragments of these wetlands have been filled up, dyked, dried and carved out for seasonal agriculture. Hence, it may not be sufficient to only stop their further degradation of wetlands of Dheerpur but would also be necessary to restore them for posterity. With this view, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has entered into a Management Agreement with Ambedkar University Delhi (AUD), in which the land ownership remains with DDA, and AUD would restore the wetlands. DDA would assist in civil work, funding research and restoration work, whereas AUD is entrusted with providing technical guidance for restoration and maintenance of the wetlands.
The Management Agreement for Dheerpur Wetland Project between AUD and DDA was signed on 17 February 2015. Following which the project was formally inaugurated on 19th June 2015.
Click here to read more on the Dheerpur Wetland Restoration
Location:
Dheerpur Wetland Project Site, Gandhi Vihar, Gopalpur Village,
Delhi 110009
Visiting hours:
10am – 5pm
Project Initiated:
Delhi, June 2015
Centre for Urban Ecology and Sustainability 