Cities and Canopies (Trees in Indian Cities)

What lies at the intersection of history, culture and ecology in urban India? Trees.

Native and imported, sacred and ordinary, culinary and floral, favourites of various kings and commoners over the centuries, trees are the most visible signs of nature in cities, fundamentally shaping their identities. Trees are storehouses of the complex origins and histories of a city's growth, coming as they do from different parts of the world, brought in by local and colonial rulers. From the tree planted by Sarojini Naidu at Dehradun's clock tower to those planted by Sher Shah Suri and Jahangir on Grand Trunk Road, trees in India have served, above all, as memory keepers. They are our roots: their trunks our pillars, their barks our texture and their branches our shade. Trees are nature's own museums.

Drawing on extensive research, Cities and Canopies is a book about both the specific and the general aspects of these gentle life-giving creatures.

HARINI NAGENDRA is professor of sustainability at Azim Premji University. She has conducted research on the interaction between people and nature in forests and cities for over twenty-five years. She writes widely for newspapers, magazines and blogs. Her previous books include Nature in the Ciry: Bengaluru in the Past, Present, and Future and Reforesting Landscapes: Linking Pattern and Process.

SEEMA MUNDOLI isa senior lecturer at Azim Premji University. She has worked with NGOs involved in conservation, mining, land and forest rights, and education in indigenous communities. Her recent work examines the relationship between people and nature in cities. In addition to research papers and popular articles, she has co-edited the State of the Environment 2005: Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

**Contents and Sample Pages**