Tag: Urban Ecology
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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…
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Dead but Alive
Himanshu Choudhery Usually, when we refer to something as dead, the immediate thought that comes to our mind is that it has no more life in it. However, what is that one thing which is “alive” even when it is dead? A tree! That’s right. A dead tree is unique in that it serves as…
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Where Humans and Virus Meet
Ajay Immanuel Gonji At a time when the world is reeling under the impact of the deadly CoVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019) outbreak, I find myself, probably like many others, trying to come to terms with my new sedentary lifestyle. Besides other things, I spend at least a couple of hours each day on news networks,…
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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…