OAiS Lab 04 · Years 4–5
Aravali & Kalpavalli
Restoration as a conversation between communities and land
- Location
- Gurugram, Haryana · Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh, India
- Coordinates
- 28.47°, 77.10°
- Field intensive
- Years 4–5
The Aravali Biodiversity Park is a former mine site, replanted. The Kalpavalli Community Conservation Area was created by local communities who put sustainable livelihoods at the centre of how the commons are restored and managed. Both refuse the idea that restoration is a technical operation.
The ground
What this site holds
- 01
ERA India's Ecological Restoration Charter (2022) frames restoration as a conversation between communities and the land rather than a rewilding target.
- 02
Both landscapes are peri-urban: deforested, mined, and now held by the postcolonial communities living with them.
- 03
Dietrich Brandis was Inspector General of Forests in India from 1864 to 1883. His archives sit at Kew and in the Indian National Archives, and they set the terms colonial forestry still lends to conservation.
Research questions
- What does community consultation actually consist of, step by step, in a restoration project?
- How do marginalised livelihoods survive a restoration that succeeds?
- How does colonial forestry still shape what counts as a restored landscape?
Planned outputs
- Plant narratives for the Plant Humanities Lab
- Comparative study of ERA's consultation process
- Summer Institute and Spec Life Symposium, McMaster (Year 4)
Cluster leads
Baishya
Affiliation to be confirmed
Singh
Affiliation to be confirmed
Jill Didur
Concordia University
Partners on this lab
ERA: Ecological Restoration Alliance India
Delhi
Ashoka University
Sonipat, Haryana
Toxics Link
Delhi
Dumbarton Oaks
Washington, DC