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The concrete forest of Mumbai has a few phenomena rarely found in cities. Some, like the leopard habitat of Sanjay Gandhi National Park, are vast, unmistakable and astonishing as they exist within the limits of the city. Others like the Koli fishing pools in Mahim, are smaller, concealed and doubly delightful when stumbled upon. Another hidden treasure is a two-acre farm in Lalbaug, neatly furrowed and divided into quadrilaterals according to produce. There’s the sort of stillness here that you find outside cities. The noise of traffic just behind the boundary walls recedes and you can hear and see chirping parakeets.
The pastoral scene, ensconced in the crook between Meghwadi chawl, the rear of Nowroz Bag and the glowering tower blocks of Kalpataru Habitat, is entirely unexpected as you walk towards it from S. S. Rao Road. It would be unexceptional in Vasai, which still has large swathes of farm land but in Parel, once the industrial heart of the city and now a mesh of high-rises, chawls and derelict mills, the patch stands out.
While the plot is owned by the BMC, the land has been farmed by Prakash Gedia’s family for over 90 years. Gedia, a civil contractor, lives in a house at the edge of the field with his family. Hired farmhands, like Sarjubhai, who has been working there for the past 25 years, cultivate the land. Gedia said that vegetables are cultivated seasonally. Currently spinach, methi, chawli and lal math (amaranth leaves) are being grown there. During the monsoon, all that’s grown is ladies finger as the crop needs to be copiously watered. There’s no shortage of rain as Lalbaug is a low-lying basin that floods every year.
The vegetables are sold mostly to vendors working in the neighbourhood. Individuals too purchase stuff directly from the farm. However few people aside from old-timers living the area know about it. The others aware of its existence either live in the surrounding towers from which they have an unfettered view of the farm; school kids brought to it on field trips; and those who have been led to the patch by Bharat Gothoskar, who conducts weekly walks in Mumbai’s old neighbourhoods under the banner Khaki Tours. The farm is a stop on his Lalbaug itinerary.
For Nitin Walmiki, the farm set him on his career path. The 30-year-old environmental researcher, who runs the NGO Eco Echo, lives next door and the farm is a few short steps from his ground floor apartment in the Meghwadi chawl complex. Being this close to nature made him want to pursue a career that would keep him near trees and wildlife. One side of the farm is bordered with flowering plants that he grows to attract birds and insects to the place. It’s clear the plants are being tended by an environmentally-conscious gardener – some pots are strung with a drip irrigation contraption Walmiki fashioned with plastic bottles and toothpicks. “I have seen a dwarf kingfisher here, which is very rare,” he said. Recently a Baillon’s crake, a migratory bird that spends winters in East Africa, was spotted here, Walmiki said.
There are such few open spaces in the city and the competition for them so fierce among builders, especially in lucrative areas like Parel, that you feel both delighted and fearful when you come across the field. A BMC board obscured by foliage proclaims the corporation’s ownership of the land. All around Meghwadi are buildings and chawls that have been redeveloped or are in the process of being razed to make way for high-rises. So the farm could not have escaped attention. Hopefully it will be left alone and continue to produce lush greens for, at the very least, the next generation of Gedias. Prakash Gedia said his son has been taking an interest in gardening, which he likes to see as a sign of his wanting to maintain the farm.
The farm is in the Meghawadi chawl complex, Dr. S.S. Rao Road, Lalbaug, Parel. Get directions here.
