When Harshita Kakwani decided to move from Indore city to the remote forests of Madhya Pradesh, she did not anticipate how she would fall for the love of foraging. Her journey into foraging and engaging with tribal communities had a personal motivation— to raise her infant son close to nature. She wanted to have minimal dependence on western medicines, and the local tribal women shared invaluable natural remedies and health practices with her. "I validated their wisdom through research, which only deepened my respect for their knowledge,” Kakwani reveals. “Living close to the forest opened up a world of discovery of new ingredients, traditional knowledge, and a deeper understanding of seasonal abundance,” says the management professional, who along with her family, shifted to the buffer zone of Pench National Park in 2015.
After her move, foraging became an integral part of her daily life. She would watch how locals collected and gathered seasonal produce; she slowly learned the art of foraging from them. She began to use the foraged products in her kitchen as a replacement for some conventional ingredients.
She began studying their nutritional value and later learned Ayurveda—connecting the dots between forest produce and holistic wellness. Over time, she began learning to identify and use these ingredients, gradually developing them into dishes that honored their roots but also appealed to the urban palate. Mahua flowers are her favourite among all the forest ingredients, which she has been using to make traditionally popular sweets. “They are nutritionally rich, versatile, and deeply rooted in our tradition. I love experimenting with them,” she explains.
At the Tiger and Woods Eco Resort, the lodge which the family took over after they moved to Pench, she began to use the foraged products in the kitchen. This practice led her to set up Prana Superfood—a foraged food initiative aimed at supporting small farmers and providing alternative livelihoods for women in forest-fringe communities. It's known for sustainably-harvested forest honey, handmade spice blends and locally-grown tisanes. “It is a social enterprise that empowers locals while giving urban consumers access to high-quality, affordable products that they would not be able to find in the grocery stores,” she says. Since the, the resort’s kitchen has evolved into a unique café offering beverages and baked goods made from forest ingredients. Interestingly, the entire staff is from local communities.
Not just plants, Kakwani is constantly innovating with rare meats blending tradition and modern techniques.
“One of my favourite culinary moments was learning to make a simple tribal snack called ‘Dumbu’ during a cookout in a small village in Jharkhand. I later recreated it, with a personal touch, at a pop-up at a hotel in Indore—and it was a hit,” she says, hoping for more such initiatives to promote indigenously farmed and foraged produce. She hopes that with her contribution, and efforts by tribal people, one day forest products such as mahua and chironji will become popular like prunes or almonds.