BENGALURU: Preparing traditional curries like massoppu and bereki soppu saaru in Bengaluru is a daunting task these days. Unless one is lucky enough to own a small plot of land where these greens can be grown, one has to find a place that sells fresh greens, usually sourced from outside the city. As Bengaluru’s urban landscape evolved over the last few years, the erstwhile green spaces within the city have steadily declined, leading to less space for these greens to naturally grow. As a result, foraging for greens like one used to in the earlier days has become an impossible task.
A new guidebook titled Chasing Soppu, co-authored by Seema Mundoli and Harini Nagendra, both faculty members at the Azim Premji University, aims to provide relief to urban foragers, by identifying over 50 forageable species of greens in the city along with providing helpful recipes. “What is today known as urban foraging in academic circles, is a practice that women engage in almost daily. What to collect, the best places for it, the best parts of the plant, when to collect and so on is all knowledge passed down from grandmothers to daughters to granddaughters. It is not easy for anyone even with the guide to identify a plant because an edible plant has very similar-looking poisonous versions. It is a real skill learnt over time,” Mundoli explains.
The brainchild of Nagendra, an ecologist and author, the book is the result of extensive research by her, and former APU faculty Dhruti Somesh and Ranini Murali. “Between November 2019 and January 2020, research interviews were conducted with around 200 people in different parts of Bengaluru, almost half of whom – around 90 – were women. The 53 species included in this field guide are the ones mentioned by those who were interviewed,” Mundoli adds.
Apart from serving as a guidebook about the various species of edible plants in the city, Mundoli hopes that the book increases awareness about the benefits of foraging, thereby reducing the artificial restrictions to green spaces in the city. “At the individual level, a better knowledge of edible plants can contribute to a more varied, nutritious diet – beyond the greens found in regular vegetable shops nowadays,” Mundoli says, adding “Foragers like the women we interviewed are facing many barriers.
There are no restrictions on accessing public spaces from where they used to forage earlier – around lakes or in parks. Timings for entry, not being allowed to collect plants, the prioritisation of landscaped gardens with only ornamental species – all these have made foraging difficult. We want urban planners, resident welfare associations, councillors to relook at how they plan public spaces – not just from aesthetic or recreational point of view but also keeping in mind the needs of the women foragers.”
(Chasing Soppu is available for free at azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in)