Nilgiri Pipit, Anamudi Shola National Park, Kerala

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Nilgiri Pipit (Anthus nilghiriensis) is a species endemic to the high-altitude grasslands of the Western Ghats and threatened by habitat loss. They feed largely on seeds and insects. They nest in the grass and their clutch size consists of 2-3 brown speckled eggs. Recently, while walking in a patch of grasslands being revived at Anamudi Shola in Kerala, we saw the bird, a sign that the rewilding is bearing fruit!

In 2019, a forest fire destroyed the invasive … Read More

Building Bridges – Improving Forest Connectivity in the Western Ghats

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A young tusker walks along Aala Halla in Lokkere reserve forest (RF), an important migratory corridor connecting two parts of Bandipur Tiger Reserve. Ecological restoration in this landscape over the last 12-years involving Junglescapes (an NGO specialising in ecological restoration) has created a very healthy habitat for elephants, with excellent grass cover and numerous browsing trees / shrub species. The area has been made almost completely free of the exotic invasive Lantana camara. Usage of the habitat by elephants … Read More

Rewilding in a City; Making of the Aravali Biodiversity Park

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I first heard of the Aravalli Biodiversity Park in 2011 from Pradip Krishen, a friend and mentor in the field of rewilding. He asked if I was free to work with a small group of people—a citizens’ initiative—who wanted to plant ‘a million trees’ and create a nature park on an old mining site at the edge of Gurgaon.

The 380-acre site was bleak and forbidding. A former mining site for quartzite rock and its orange, gravelly degrade, known as … Read More

Foundation Training Program on the Practice of Ecological Restoration — Pune, Jan & Feb, 2020

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This is conducted by the Center for Ecological Landscapes at BNCA (Dr Bhanuben Nanavati College of Architecture), Pune, in collaboration with the Society for Ecological Restoration, the leading international organization on ecological restoration, and Junglescapes Charitable Trust, Bangalore.

See program poster below.

Programme will introduce participants to the principles, concepts and practice of ecological restoration, through indoor sessions, site visits, hands-on field training and web-based inputs from international experts.

Who is it for?

For anyone interested in ecological restoration … Read More

Ecological Restoration Increases Tree Diversity and Carbon Storage in Degraded Rainforest Fragments

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Our research article that appeared recently in the journal, Ecosphere, asks: To what extent can a degraded rainforest be ecologically restored to resemble an undisturbed and mature rainforest? This is the first study that attempts to evaluate the effectiveness of a long term rainforest restoration project in the Anamalai Hills of the Western Ghats in peninsular India.

The results of the study suggest that ecological restoration of degraded rainforests – by controlling invasive weeds and planting native tree saplings – … Read More

Conservation is Not Enough, We Need to Restore

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This was the constant undertone at the 8th Global Ecological Restoration Conference of the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER) held recently at Cape Town, South Africa. Almost a third of the world’s natural resources are degraded today, many severely, and India is no exception. This includes our forest and non-forest landscapes, oceans, rivers, coasts, wetlands, and many other unique ecosystems. Biodiversity as well as ecosystem service delivery capability stand more seriously impaired than ever before. Importantly, many of nature’s systems … Read More

A Landmark Event: UN Declares “Decade of Ecosystem Restoration”

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In the first week of March the UN declared 2021-30 as the decade of ecosystem restoration. The resolution pioneered by El Salvador was supported by calls from the international community to put ecological restoration at the forefront of national agendas. The Society for Ecological Restoration (SER) has called this an important step toward focusing the world’s attention on the imperative of restoring degraded ecosystems. The UN declaration is expected to bring political commitment, scientific research and financial muscle to scale … Read More