nature in the city - · pdf filenature in the city 2015 ... our notions of ‘wild’...

Nature in the city

2015

Sharada Ramadass

Ravi Ramalingam Aniruddha Marathe

Prashanth M. B.

Hita Unnikrishnan

Barkha Subba

Barkha Subba

Urban biodiversity. Biological diversity outside our notions of ‘wild’ and ‘natural’ spaces, in the manmade constructs of a city. This calendar is about biodiversity that has survived, as well as the planned, mapped, groomed and con�gured biodiversity in areas structured to suit human purpose in the most densely populated cities of India. The images in this calendar have been taken by ATREE students, researchers and staff. They serve to evoke memories of what we have seen, perhaps not noticed, of the wild around us.

A city provides niches to plant and animal life. In a schoolyard. Someone’s balcony. A vacant plot. A garbage site; down roads with regimented rows of trees, disciplined by plan and selected by our desire for aesthetics, yet fundamental to their purpose of providing us shade, and refuge to their non-human denizens. In tended parks and unmanicured sidewalks with wild�owers and grasses in the cracks of the pavement. Cultural niches as well: heritage �g trees in the compounds of temples, ancient botanical displays in universities, overgrown cemeteries and tended graveyards, army grounds…cities are not bereft of biodiversity.

Small birds, amphibians, snakes, lizards may still be found through the transformation of landscapes into concrete jungles. We have places in cities—remnants of the natural—that persist in the memories of migratory birds and animals, and to which they return every season. Waterbirds, raptors, warblers. We have biodiversity that thrives in the opportunities that the human-dominated landscape provides: pigeons, crows, mynas, sparrows, black kites, monkeys. Not to be taken for granted, though. Sparrows have almost disappeared.

We can still pack a bag and head out of the city to experience nature. But we can also, in our day-to-day back and forth, give ourselves the chance to encounter the opportunities that our city offers. Cityscapes give us unexpected visitors—some of them delightful, some of them unwelcome—the ones we call pests and vermin. Unusual sightings that �ll us with awe, and those we have seen so often that we are blind to them. Put together, they de�ne the character and shape of the city we live in. If we stop, look, and appreciate, maybe we will do everything we can to make sure we are kinder to the life around us.

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Mycteria leucocephala. Painted stork, over East Coast Road in Chennai. Ramya Ravi’s frame includes evidence of more than natural disturbances as she researches how waders— pelicans, �amingoes, painted storks—have been impacted by depleting backwater resources post the tsunami of 2004. Hulking in the background are apartments that promise a ‘view’ re�ecting the many pressures of development on urban biodiversity.

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Life can spring up and try to sustain itself even in the harshest of places. This picture of a Mexican poppy, also called the �owering thistle (Argemone mexicana), growing on the cleaned up, dry, parched bed of the Kogilu Lake in Bengaluru is sharply illustrative of this beauty of urban nature. This is an extremely hardy plant and often the only species to be seen growing on parched soils or edges of roads. Photo by Hita Unnikrishnan.

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A hoary-bellied squirrel scans people walking along Zakir Hussain Road, Darjeeling. Unlike the palm squirrels, these larger squirrels hardly ever come down to the ground, preferring to use telephone and cable lines where there is no canopy connectivity. As green spaces shrink in Darjeeling, and more buildings come up in their place, these squirrels are being pushed to the outskirts of the town area. Photo by Samuel Thomas.

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“Think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree.” It is no coincidence that the temperature is perceived to drop in city areas that have more trees. The kinds of trees grown and how they are arranged, de�nes a place. Large trees such as this rain tree (Albizia saman) in Cubbon Park, Bengaluru are fast disappearing from cities to make space for more people, vehicles and buildings. The smaller ornamentals that replace them cannot replicate the function, sense of history and community that the large trees provide. Photo by Cynthia Sinclair.


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Hita Unnikrishnan looks at biodiversity that we cultivate and use for aesthetic and cultural reasons. This basket contains �owers and leaves of species that have both religious and provisioning value; they are being sold outside a temple in the heart of Bengaluru. While the �owers—jasmine, rose—may be seen in home gardens, neem trees, whose leaves have insecticidal and therapeutic value are often grown outside homes in the city, or in sacred spaces called ashwathkattes, and are well protected.

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Calotes versicolor, Oriental garden lizard. A distinctive species in buff to grey or reddish colours, an occasionally bobbing head and eyes that can move independently of each other; this is a familiar sight across India. This lizard was a regular visitor to Ronita Mukherjee’s �eld station in peri-urban Bengaluru, favouring this particular spot. It is seen here in its mating colours, which could also be the reason it picked this prominent spot on the stone column.

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Some species thrive in cities. Columba livia, rock pigeons, are common throughout much of the Indian subcontinent. In the wild, these birds nest in holes and crevices of cliffs and rock ledges, while the large feral populations are commonly seen nesting over window ledges, roof tops and parapet walls of buildings; and often considered pests. Ravi Ramalingam took this picture soon after the rain had stopped. The subdued sunlight helped capture the iridescent colours around the pigeons’ nape.

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The discovery, this year, of two rounded palm-redeye butter�ies (Erionota torus), roosting on the door of his lab made Rajkamal Goswami excited. Till last year, the known range of this butter�y species was from the eastern and southeastern Himalayas to south China, Indo-China, and all the way to deep southeast Asia. Then late last year, it was recorded for the �rst time in Ernakulam, Kerala. A signi�cant range extension of the species southwestward. This was its �rst sighting at ATREE, Bengaluru.

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The Greater Adjutant Stork (Leptoptilos dubius) is the world’s most endangered stork species. With 1200-1800 individuals in the wild, the Brahmaputra Valley is considered its last stronghold, harbouring more than 80 per cent of the global population. Guwahati’s urban garbage dumps now have the largest concentration of Greater Adjutant Storks in the world, because of ongoing destruction of the surrounding wetlands and habitat. Dhritiman Das’ bird watching trip brought him to this sight at a garbage dump near Deepor Beel Bird Sanctuary in Boragaon.

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Some institutional spaces are custodians of a city’s green areas; army grounds, university campuses, and even religious spaces qualify. Sacred places are sanctuary to venerable old trees like this banyan (Ficus benghalensis) near the ATREE of�ce in Bengaluru. The current priest of the temple, now in his late seventies, remembers the time his grandfather planted this tree. Since then, the family has been rebuilding the protective picket around the tree to contain its expanding girth. Photo by Jayalakshmi Krishnan.

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Rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) infant. Darjeeling. As the hill town expands and green spaces shrink, the macaques are forced to rely on the generosity of the devout who visit the Mahakal Temple and on occasional raids of markets and homes. They have also polarised public opinion: animal lovers want them to remain while others want them relocated. The relocation efforts have only resulted in new human-wildlife con�icts in the villages around the forests where they were released. Photo by Samuel Thomas.

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DEC/2015

Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP), Mumbai. Ovee Thorat talks of her relationship with this city park, “To me a walk in SGNP always invokes a feeling of gratitude and peace. It was this forest, which introduced me and many other urban kids to the wonders of nature... beautiful routes and interesting destinations such as the old Buddhist caves, and the best way to travel is on bicycle or on foot...” SGNP is home to resident and migratory species of birds, 52 reptiles, 59 mammals, 155 species of butter�ies and a variety of plants.

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ATREE, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, established in 1996, addresses the ecological, social and economic dimensions of India’s environmental degradation through relevant research, targeted education, and strategic action. ATREE is an environmental research organization with an interdisciplinary approach that connects natural and social scientists with government of�cials, business leaders, civil society organizations, and local communities to address the environmental and livelihood issues arising from our current pace of development.

For more about ATREE visit www.atree.org

Bengaluru (Main)

Royal EnclaveSriramapuraJakkur PostBengaluru 560064Tel: +91 80 2363 5555Fax: +91 80 2353 0070

Eastern Himalayas (Regional)

Khangsar HouseDevelopment AreaGangtok 737101SikkimTel: +91 3592 206403

New Delhi (Policy liaison and development)

C-86, 2nd FloorBK Dutt ColonyNew Delhi 110003Tel: +91 11 2460 3134

About Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment

Design: [email protected]

nature in the city - · pdf filenature in the city 2015 ... our notions of ‘wild’...

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