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.
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?
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…
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…
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…
Ajay Immanuel Gonji My first close encounter with roadkill was during fieldwork for my Master’s internship, way back in 2013. I remember seeing the bloated body of a large male nilgai, fully intact, on the footpath of the Aruna Asaf Ali Marg – a 6-lane highway bifurcating the Sanjay Van city forest and the Jawaharlal…
Sonali Chauhan During mid-March 2020, academic institutions in Delhi were put under lockdown. A few days later, office work, general discussions, and conversations shifted to online mode. Apart from the pandemic, the conversations were centered around the topic of anxiety and mental stress that may increase due to our current sedentary lifestyle. People are devising…
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…
Amit Kaushik Canis lupus familiaris – the dog – was genetically classified as a subspecies of Canis lupus or the grey wolf in 1982. Although the wolf has always been demonized by human beings, the dog is considered as their best friend. 7,000-year-old archaeological evidence from ancient human civilizations emphasizes the mutualistic relationship between dogs and human beings. This…