This DRP is proposed as part of a community led project to protect an urban wilderness site in Koteshwar, which is threatened by development and infrastructural change. It was instigated by residents and has informal political support. The project has two objectives. Firstly to protect the main site which comprises four different ecological biotypes and has diverse user groups. Secondly to reinstate a link between the site and the Sabarmati River, by restoring a damaged nala. In the DRP students will undertake both graphic analysis of detailed data, and research into the coexistence of urban wilderness, agriculture and infrastructure. This will lead to a vision statement outlining a range of design objectives for the project, which will be presented to land owners SRFDC and GUDA and the public to generate support for the project, leading towards implementation. Students will liaise with biology & sociology students, who are documenting flora & fauna and pollution & damage. The collected data covers a vast array of species, seasonal transformations, animal behaviours, examples of destruction and stakeholder interactions. The site is complex: home to hundreds of settled and migratory species. These include breeding herons, snakes, neelgai and colonies of ants which build nests from tiny blue flowers during the monsoon. It is used by local residents including farmers, construction workers, gamblers, dog walkers, bootleggers and shepherds.
