Tag: Nature in the City
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Darwin Comes to Town: How the Urban Jungle Drives Evolution. Menno Schilthuizen (2018).
The Anthropocene marks an era of profound human influence on Earth’s systems. While many studies highlight mass extinction, Menno Schilthuizen emphasizes nature’s resilience in urban landscapes. He presents cities as evolving ecosystems where adaptation unfolds rapidly, challenging conventional views of urbanization. His perspective urges a rethinking of urban ecology and the persistence of biodiversity.
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Small Parks, Big Stories: Tracking Birds in Parks
During my internship, I worked in Delhi’s urban parks, places I hadn’t initially considered ecologically significant. Though the city’s lakes caught my attention first, it was the birds that truly transformed my viewing of urban nature. What began as a routine two-credit assignment turned into a deeper exploration of biodiversity in seemingly ordinary green spaces,…
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His songs at 2 a.m.
At 2 a.m., when the city seems finally at rest, a sudden drawn-out whistle pierces the silence—sweeeeeeeeeee. It is the Oriental Magpie Robin (Copsychus saularis), a bird many may never have noticed in flight, yet one whose voice is etched into the urban soundscape. By day, it is a striking figure in black and white,…
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Meeting by the Marsh: ERA Visit to Dheerpur Wetland
A nature walk at the Dheerpur Wetland Project, organized by CUES and ERA, offered participants insights into urban wetland restoration. Participants shared experiences, discussed restoration challenges, and fostered a spirit of collaboration in the field.
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Beyond the Nocturnal Veil: Exploring Diurnal Roosts of Fruit Bats
While there are many preconceived notions about bats, very little is known about their daytime roosting habitats and habits. This piece explores the diurnal roosts of fruit bats within the urban landscape of Delhi.
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Cities – Far Away from Nature?
Global populations continue to urbanise at an unprecedented rate, with cities expanding into huge concentrations of concrete, steel, and glass, raising sustainability concerns. I’ve attempted to explore this issue from the standpoint of urban ecology, an interdisciplinary branch of study that looks at the complex interactions between the built environment of cities and non-human species.
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Beautiful Dragonflies of the Not-so-Beautiful City
This article investigates dragonflies in the city. While they are specialists in flight, very little is known about their pre-metamorphosis aquatic life. Since urban areas create niches where multi-habitat creatures like dragonflies can flourish, should cities be chastised as unwise, unsustainable endeavours or can they be reimagined as housing nature in changed forms?
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Gatekeeping “Access”: Exploring Caveats to Public Greenspace Use for the Urban Poor
Planning processes institutionalise the will of the politically powerful, shaping cities where equal access to urban public greenspace is several steps too far for the urban poor, quite literally and quietly figuratively. Environmental justice scholarship needs to integrate quantitative and qualitative measurements of access to understand what influences greenspace use along socio-economic indicators.
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Birding in the Wetlands
Merlyn Antony “Hope” is the thing with feathers – That perches in the soul – And sings the tune without the words – And never stops – at all – – Emily Dickinson As the birds’ chirps flooded the morning sky, the students of MAED (M.A. in Environment and Development) along with PhD scholars at…
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Out of Place and Out of Space – Translocation and the Urban Monkey
Aditi Dhillon This year, in June 2021, the Karnataka High Court passed a judgement according to which monkeys entering residential spaces were to be translocated and moved to their natural habitat by the state. This judgement, however, was not one of its kind. It was, in fact, along the lines of a judgement passed by…