Deleted Twitter for sometime. Back now. Ecologist. Naturalist. Independent, finally. Let's do this again.

We keep saying India is a biodiversity hotspot. But most of our environmental clearance reports treat species as a checklist, not a system. Knowing what's there and understanding why it matters are very different things.

Eastern Himalaya. Pre-dawn. Fog so thick you navigate by bird calls. There's no field guide for that feeling.

"Nature-based solutions" is becoming the new greenwashing vocabulary. Planting trees in the wrong place, wrong species, wrong context — and calling it restoration. The label is moving faster than the science.

"Nature-positive" is becoming the new "sustainable." Broad enough to mean everything. Specific enough to mean nothing. If your 2030 commitment doesn't name a landscape, a baseline, and a measurable outcome — it's a vibe, not a target.

🌳Excited to share our new data paper: Urban Trees of India (UTI) 🇮🇳 A first-of-its-kind national database documenting 742 tree species across 380 urban areas. Nicely led by Harsh Yadav along with Arkajyoti Shome

<DATA ARTICLE> The Urban Trees of India (UTI): A Database of Trees in Built-Up Areas of India Harsh Yadav et al esj-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/4MB5SCSZ… foliage retention/ Indian urban areas/ threatened #tree species/ urban #biodiversity