City beneath the concrete | Review of Neha Sinha’s Wild Capital

Explore Neha Sinha's "Wild Capital," a poignant blend of memoir and nature writing uncovering Delhi's hidden ecological treasures.

Nature writing has always been a niche space. There has been a revival in this genre of late, perhaps driven by the urgency of the pressures placed on the natural world. This writing is often steered by young, passionate authors, who have used it as a tool for conservation.

The revival has also seen a change in tonality. The focus has shifted from inaccessible wilderness to the ultra-local and often neglected spaces around where we live. There are also more women and people from varied cultural and scientific backgrounds writing now, not just the adventurer or the explorer.

Contemporary nature writing is often as much about inner reflection as it is about the world outside. It is infused with grief over what has been lost, a scientifically based recollection of what remains, and an attempt to reconnect with nature.

In many ways, this is exactly what Neha Sinha’s Wild Capital (HarperCollins India) does: it richly showcases a side of Delhi unseen by most, switching effortlessly between a well-researched field report and an intensely personal memoir in lyrical language.

The book is at its best when it immerses the reader in the sensory experience of being outdoors, especially its sonic ambience. It often steps back into 1990s Delhi — a lost world of nature’s sacred static, from howling jackals and rain dripping onto the forest floor to insects, owls, and frog calls, now swallowed by the noise of a callous city. As Sinha writes, “What we have now are the clues remnant populations leave us. How important the most basic things are to wildlife — a mature tree, a patch of chemical-free earth, clean amphibian-filled water, dark and damp places where fireflies can light up the way.”

A sense of loss threads the different sections together. Sinha tells us not only how the city changed without remembering what is important, but also catalogues what has been lost. Delhi, in the not-too-distant past, harboured healthy populations of wolves, vultures, hog deer, black buck and hyenas, to mention a few.