This project delves into Delhi's Maali community, the caretakers of the city's greenery. It aims to understand their traditional knowledge and expertise in blending nature with infrastructure.
Aligning with urban agriculture and park mapping initiatives, we set out to engage directly with Maalis through nursery visits, dialogue, and knowledge exchange, focusing on their practices, challenges, and traditional wisdom in urban plant cultivation, nursery management practices, their relationship with the state, and potential areas for improvement, contributing to Delhi's food security and climate resilience.
We set out to pursue the fieldwork for this project, charting out our interactions with gardeners and nursery workers in the locales of Nathupura, Roshanara Bagh, Shastri Nagar and Ashok Vihar in Delhi, amongst other sprawls and drew insights from the meetings with the Indian Nurserymen Association. We documented their perspectives and insights through interviews, observations, and visual recordings and are currently preparing a report on the same. We can't wait for you to read it!