Seema Mundoli

Seema enjoys 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. She is especially interested in making research accessible to a wider audience. Her recent co-authored books, ​“Cities and Canopies: Trees in Indian Cities” Penguin India) and ​“So many leaves” (Pratham Books) are attempts in this direction. She is also interested in action research, for example understanding 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. She started with a master’s in business administration and a career in the corporate sector. But moved to working with NGOs involved in conservation, mining, land and forest rights, and education of indigenous communities. Her shift to working in the urban context began after her second postgraduate degree, a master’s in development at the University in 2014. But she found the real meaning of life after she got her pet cats, and now also fosters orphaned and abandoned kittens as part of the Bangalore Cat Squad.