Nature - Ecosystems & Habitats - Urban & Suburban

My Wild City: Finding Nature, Meaning, and Hope in India’s Capital

"A bold and glorious book about humans, cities and the wild lives of the beings—from fireflies to rivers—with whom we share the habitats we have built. It is brilliantly crafted at the level of the sentence and image, adventurous in its forms and tones, and its themes—memory, love, loss, care, value—are as embracing and urgent as they come. It’s magnificent."
—Robert Macfarlane, author of Is a River Alive?


When is the last time you ran your hands through the tumult of wild grass flowers? Or stopped to watch a firefly? In a warming, hostile world, how do we find purpose? Perhaps we can start with noticing the bird outside one's window?

In My Wild City, acclaimed nature writer Neha Sinha takes us on an unforgettable journey through the hidden wildernesses of the bustling metropolis of Delhi, where she finds wild creatures, ecological histories and a deep sense of meaning that bind us to the places we call our own.

Exploring the city over many days and nights, Sinha traces memories and the stories of extraordinary human lives, discovering centuries-old groves of trees and neglected rivers, mammal tracks and bird calls, words forgotten and then re-found.

The result is a deeply personal yet universal book which reveals how we can find our way in the world through the exploration of natural places-and presents a manifesto of hope through the rediscovery of nature.

About The Author

Neha Sinha is a conservation biologist and an acclaimed author. With over a decade of wildlife conservation work under her belt, Neha is on a lifelong mission to make the joys and challenges of nature accessible to everyone, and to re-look at the ordinary through a new lens. 

Trained in conservation at Oxford University and in literature at St. Stephen’s College in Delhi, Neha combines the rigours of conservation science with compelling literary flair. She is the author of Wild and Wilful: Tales of Fifteen Iconic Indian Species, published by HarperCollins in 2011. She has received awards for both her conservation work as well as her writing and is often found wandering in places looking for birds and the perfect words to describe them. She lives in Delhi, works at WWF India, and is deeply partial to animals considered "ugly."

  • Publish Date: September 01, 2026
  • Format: eBook
  • Category: Nature - Ecosystems & Habitats - Urban & Suburban
  • Publisher: Chelsea Green
  • Pages: 256
  • US Price: $17.99
  • CDN Price: $40.00
  • ISBN: 978-1-64502-487-3

Reviews

"A call to notice, to cherish and to protect, My Wild City is for anyone who has ever found solace in the shade of a tree on a crowded city street, or marvelled at the tenacity of life sprouting through cracked concrete. This beautifully written book is a reminder that even in the heart of a city, wonder is waiting to be rediscovered."—Amitav Ghosh, author of The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable

"My Wild City is a bold and glorious book about humans, cities and the wild lives of the beings - from fireflies to rivers - with whom we share the habitats we have built. It is brilliantly crafted at the level of the sentence and image, adventurous in its forms and tones, and its themes-memory, love, loss, care, value--are as embracing and urgent as they come. It's magnificent."—Robert Macfarlane, author of Is a River Alive?

"A triumph and a miracle - My Wild City invites you to explore the living city hidden in plain sight, from ronjh and jaal to barbets and bats. Neha Sinha writes with deep, unsentimental love and wisdom about how we might recover and celebrate wildness, and dream of healing Delhi: ancient, ravaged, but teeming with life."—Nilanjana Roy, author of Black River

"In My Wild City, Neha Sinha returns to what she does best-catching a world between "forgotten" and "found", flight and forest, she shares with us a city whose living history is the history of its plant and animal lives."—Sumana Roy, author of How I Became a Tree

"A very original, lyrical but scientifically erudite hymn to the nature still flourishing in this most urban of urban environments, and a beautifully evocative reminder for a capitalist society of what capital really is: what we are all living off."—Ruth Padel, author of Tigers in Red Weather and Where the Serpent Lives

Author Bookshelf: Neha Sinha