Tag: Urban Ecology
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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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Bats: The Night Workers
Shiwani As the sun goes down, the nightwalker, or rather, I would say, night fliers come out, one can see colonies of bats flying in the sky and sometimes wandering near a tree or plant. On one such night, as I stood on the balcony, sipping a cup of tea, I observed some bats visiting…
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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…
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Disciplining Non-human Bodies in the City
Aditi Dhillon & Ajay Immanuel Gonji In his seminal essay Why Look at Animals? John Berger (2009) talks about how, in the past, people kept domestic animals because they were useful to them – as guard dogs, hunting dogs, mice-killing cats, and so on. Later, people began to keep animals regardless of their usefulness, a…
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A Brief on Control and Management of Invasive Phragmites for Wetland Restoration
Shiwani One of the important steps in wetland restoration is managing the invasive or weed species (SER Report, 2019). A common invasive plant that is a threat to the ecological health of wetland ecosystems is a family of grasses called phragmites (Phragmites karka). These are dominant wetland plants and are found all around the world,…
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Plant-Pollinator Interactions at Dheerpur Wetland Project Site
Kartik Chugh After almost 5 months in the lockdown, the operations at the Centre for Urban Ecology and Sustainability (CUES) resumed, albeit slowly. Recently, while working at Dheerpur Wetland Project Site (DWPS), two of my colleagues found out that the flowers of Oroxylum indicum tree had started blooming. The news got us pretty excited because…
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Analyzing Vegetation Cover Change in Dheerpur Wetland Restoration Site
Shiwani The success of an ecological restoration project is based on several key attributes such as the progress/recovery of ecosystem function and structure. A timely assessment/evaluation of the progress of the restoration activities is an important step in measuring the progress. It further helps in monitoring the changes and emergent patterns that could be of…
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Conservation Through Citizen Science
Himanshu Choudhery Worldwide, the field of biological conservation has been increasingly seeing the involvement of people of all ages. From amateur wildlife explorers to the more experienced ones, everyone is actively contributing to the conservation of biodiversity. This active participation and collaboration of the general public with professionals in scientific research is known as citizen science.…
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Plight of Granivorous Birds in Urban Landscapes
Shashank Bhardwaj Introduction When people talk about House Sparrow, it reminds me of my vivid childhood memories in Delhi. I remember sitting with my mother in the open veranda in the scorching heat of summer, helping her with household chores like cleaning, and storing wheat grains. At times, my mother would get occupied with other…
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Lockdown Effects: Conditioning of Stray Dogs to Vehicular Traffic
Fizala Tayebulla Street dogs have become one of the very few animals that us humans could watch and access from our locked-in houses in cities. As humans limited their movement and remained mostly within premises of their homes, commuting in vehicles- a typical urban activity came to a standstill. City roads became unusually quiet and…
Centre for Urban Ecology and Sustainability 