Book offers lessons on urban biodiversity

The book Biodiversity in Microhabitats: Plants, Predators and Prey in Arogyashram by B V Venkatesha Murthy documents the changes in biodiversity in Dhanvantari Arogyashram, Nanjangud.

Murthy began collecting various plants and trees which had medicinal properties and planting them in the Arogyashram in the 70s.

The unexpected consequence was that he would also create an urban pocket cohabited by a wide variety of insects, birds and reptiles.

Urban context

The book aims to document both the plant and wildlife species that stay in the ashram, but also to show how it is possible to develop such spaces within the urban context.

“We’ve simplified our understanding of nature,” Dr M D Madhusudhan, professor, National Centre for Biological Sciences, said at the book release on Monday. “We either see it as a commodity or as just forests. We need to shift our imagination of what nature is.”

Peda and cow link

Also speaking at the event, Suresh Heblikar, the founder of Eco-Watch and a filmmaker corroborates. “The reason Dharwad Peda is called Dharwad Peda is that the cows used to drink from the local streams and graze the local grass.”

Karthikeyan Srinivas, a naturalist says that the effort by Arogyashram is a demonstration of what could happen if more citizens were to create such pockets. “You could do it in an apartment as well,” he said.

“There are creepers or other plants you can grow and observe the micro diversities that creates. Even that is biodiversity.”