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Seema Mundoli

Areas of Interest & Expertise

  • Importance of nature in cities
  • Cities as interlinked social-ecological systems
  • Environmental history of cities
  • Challenges of urban sustainability in India
  • Nature based solutions provided by urban ecosystems
  • Role of media in climate change debate

Biography

What role does nature have to play in making cities more sustainable? How can I contribute to making the cities we live in more equitable? These are the questions that drive my current research interests. 

I enjoy exploring different aspects of urban sustainability along with students from the University and from other institutions as they bring with them interesting questions and lenses through which to explore cityscapes. What I am especially interested in is making research accessible to a wider audience. 

My recently co-authored books (with Harini Nagendra), ​“Shades of Blue: Connecting the Drops in India’s Cities” (Penguin India), ​“Cities and Canopies: Trees in Indian Cities” (Penguin India), and ​“So Many Leaves” (Pratham Books) are attempts in this direction.

I am also interested in action research, for example understanding the impacts of development projects on urban green cover, that can contribute even in a small way to bridging the divide between the binary of development and environment. 

I started with a master’s in business administration and a career in the corporate sector but moved to work with NGOs involved in conservation, mining, land and forest rights, and education of indigenous communities. My shift to working in the urban context began after my second postgraduate degree, a master’s in development at the University in 2014. But I found the real meaning of life after I got my pet cats, and now also foster orphaned and abandoned kittens as part of the Bangalore Cat Squad. 

Courses

Books

  • Chasing Soppu

    Dhruthi Somesh, Harini Nagendra, Ranjini Murali, Rohit Rao, Seema Mundoli (2022)

Chapter in a Books

Reports

Resilient cities Seema and Kaustubh

Resilient Cities: A relook at our cities from an ecological perspective 

By 2050, over 68% of the human population will live in urban areas. Cities will bear the maximum brunt. How to make them more resilient? Watch Seema Mundoli and Kaustubh Rau, faculty members, Azim Premji University, discuss this.

Publications

Books

Edited Books

  • Nagendra, H., & Mundoli, S. (Eds.). (Forthcoming). Urban Sustainability Challenges in India. Orient Blackswan.
  • Andrews, H.V., Jayaraj, R. S.C., & Mundoli, S. (Eds). (2006). State of Environment, Andaman and Nicobar Archipelago. Universities Press.

Chapters in Edited Books

  • Mundoli, S,. Dechamma, C.S., Auddy, M., Sanfui, A., & Nagendra H. (2022). Chapter 2: A new imagination for waste and water in India’s peri-urban interface. In V. Narain & D. Roth (Eds.), Water Security, Conflict and Cooperation in Peri-Urban South Asia: Flows Across Boundaries (pp. 27 – 44), Springer.
  • Mundoli, S., Dechamma, C. S., Auddy, M., Sanfui, A., & Nagendra, H. (2021). A new imagination for waste and water in India’s peri-urban interface. Flows Across Frontiers: Water Security, Conflicts and Cooperation in Peri-urban South Asia, pp. 27 – 43. Springer. https://​pub​li​ca​tions​.azim​premji​u​ni​ver​si​ty​.edu​.in/​3427/
  • Mundoli, S., Hariprasad, V. M., Venkatraman, P., & Nagendra, H. (under review). Urban visions that risk urban social and ecological sustainability: Smart cities in India. In: Urban Sustainability Challenges in India. Orient Blackswan.
  • Mundoli, S. & Nagendra, H. (2020). Cultural and sacred worship of urban nature. (Chapter 52). In: Routledge Handbook of Urban Ecology (Second edition). Routledge.
  • Mundoli, S., & Nagendra, H. (2020). Values, justice and urban ecosystems (Chapter 54). In: Routledge Handbook of Urban Ecology (Second edition). Routledge.
  • Basole, A., Idiculla, M., Narayanan, R., Nagendra, H., & Mundoli, S. (2020). Strengthening towns through sustainable employment. In: Reviving Jobs: An Agenda for Growth. Penguin.
  • Mundoli, S., Unnikrishnan, H., Nagendra, H. (2019). Urban commons of the Global South: Using multiple frames to illuminate complexity (Chapter 18). In: Routledge Handbook of the Study of Commons (pp 220 – 234). Routledge.

Journal Articles

Newspaper Articles

Online Articles

Conference Papers

  • Mundoli, S., Sanfui A., & Nagendra, H. (2021). Converting waste to wealth: Ecosystem services of the East Kolkata Wetlands in India. In: The Disappearing Dialogues
  • Mundoli, S., & Nagendra, H. (2018). Commons in ​“no-man’s land”: Status and governance of rural commons in the urban fringes of Bengaluru city, India. In: Proceedings of The Sixth Annual Conference of Network of Rural and Agrarian Studies, 20 – 22 September 2018 at Central University Gujarat, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India.
  • Mundoli, S., Manjunatha, B., & Nagendra, H. (2017, September 13 to 15). Losing our commons: Land use changes to peri-urban commons of Bengaluru city. In: 2nd Asia-Pacific Urban Forestry Meeting, Seoul, South Korea. 
  • Mundoli, S., Manjunatha, B., & Nagendra, H. (2016). Planning for resilience. Ecosystem services of Bengaluru’s wooded groves. In: Eleventh Annual International Conference on Public Policy and Management, 8 – 9 August, 2016, Indian Instittue of Management, Bengaluru.
  • Mundoli, S., Manjunatha, B., & Nagendra, H. (2016, June 24 – 25). Losing the commons: Rapid changes to the gunda thopes of Bengaluru. In: Bangalore’s ​‘Great Transformation, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru.
  • Mundoli, S., Manjunatha, B., Unnikrishnan, H., & Nagendra, H. (2016, January 22 – 23). Shifting sands: Fluid landscapes of water commons in Bengaluru. In: 11th Annual ISOLA Conference 2016, Bengaluru.
  • Mundoli, S., Unnikrishnan, H., & Nagendra, H. (2016, January 4 – 6). Commons that provide: Multiple uses and vulnerabilities of Bengaluru’s urban commons. In: 8th Biennial Conference of the Indian Society for Ecological Economics (INSEE), Bengaluru.

Reports

  • Nagendra, H., Mundoli, S., & Nishanth, V. (2023, February). Environmental impacts of proposed flyover on Sankey Road. Azim Premji University, Bengaluru.
  • Mundoli, S., Kapoor, V., Patankar, S., Gala, M., & Nagendra, H. (2021, September 29). Ecological impacts of proposed smart city development plan in Cubbon Park. 
  • Mundoli, S., & Nagendra, H. (2021, 9 July). The unconventional biodiversity hotspots in urban and peri-urban Bengaluru. 
  • Mundoli, S., & Nagendra, H. (2020). Why every tree in our cities count.
  • Mundoli, S., & Nagendra, H. (2020). Heritage trees of urban India: Importance and their protection.
  • Mundoli, S., Murali, R., & Nagendra, H. (2020) Environmental and ecological impacts of tree-felling and road widening of Bengaluru’s outer roads.
  • Basole, A., Narayanan, R., Nagendra, H., & Mundoli, S. (2019). Strengthening Towns through Sustainable Employment: A Job Guarantee Programme for Urban India. Centre for Sustainable Employment, Azim Premji University.
  • Nagendra, H., Mundoli, S., & Nishant, V. (2017). Report on environmental and ecological impacts of tree felling for proposed steel flyover on Bellary Road and road widening of Jayamahal Main Road, Bengaluru.
  • Mundoli, S. (2011). Impacts of governance policies on the sustenance of tribal people in the Eastern Ghats (Bilingual: English and Telugu). Dhaatri Resource Centre for Women and Children-Samata, Visakhapatnam, India.

Podcast

Videos