Cities and Canopies, Harini Nagendra
Cities and Canopies, Harini Nagendra
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Cities and Canopies

Author: Harini Nagendra

Narrator: Dilshad Khurana

Unabridged: 5 hr 53 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/19/2019

Synopsis

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 city growth, coming as they do from different parts of the world, brought in by various 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 bark 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.

About Harini Nagendra

Harini Nagendra is a professor of sustainability at Azim Premji University, Bangalore, India. She has received the Elinor Ostrom Senior Scholar Award as well as the Cozzarelli Prize with Elinor Ostrom from the Proceedings of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences for research on sustainability. The Bangalore Detectives Club and Murder Under a Red Moon are the first two novels in her Bangalore Detective Club mystery series.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Ajith

This book introduces you to the world of trees found in the Indian landscape. It is a treasure trove of historical, mythological and factual information on commonly found trees. There are also assorted recipes and cooking instructions included. Some of the trees that we see daily and presume to be I......more

Goodreads review by Jayati

A fun and informative book with details of not just the trees of Indian cities but with lots of childhood memories, historic events, poems and recipes interleaved! Reading this book feels like talking with fellow nature loving friends. Although it is an easy read, it is well researched and has been......more

Quotes

The book is a luscious romp through the fruit, fun, poetry, folk tales, history and healing properties of the trees we live with. (Live Mint)

Those who see timber in trees (and electricity in rivers) should read a book, just out, that can only be described as beautiful. Harini Nagendra and Seema Mundoli have given us a riveting work-Cities and Canopies: Trees in Indian Cities. (Scroll.in)

Cities and Canopies is a fresh, breezy cocktail-one that lifts your spirits yet strikes a note of melancholy, rekindling lost loves and associations, kindling new knowledge and wonder, as it maps the ecological and cultural histories of trees in cities and in our lives, past and present. (Hindustan Times)

The book will take you on a tour of the familiar as well as the unknown. (Week)

The writing is simple and straightforward throughout-and frankly this is a book that ought to be made mandatory reading for all school children and adults. (Open)

With an easy style of writing, and by breaking down scientific facts into relatable bits of information, the authors make the book accessible to a wide audience. (Mongabay)

Cities and Canopies, written by Harini Nagendra and Seema Mundoli, reveals myriad facts about the trees we've grown up watching and also gives us a painful reminder of their importance, given the tree-starved state of our urban landscape. (Financial Express)

Through a blend of science, history, memory and whimsy, Cities and Canopies draws lucid sketches of the most common trees found in Indian cities and the life-systems they support. (Indian Express)

With thousands of trees being felled in New Delhi, this is a key reminder of what the urban canopy does for the environment and for us. (Nature)

A new book [that] combines scientific rigour with anecdotes and nostalgia to highlight the significance of trees in urban life. (Forbes)

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