Rampant Urbanization, Loss of Green Spaces, Depleting Foraging Wisdom for Nutrition, Health, and Protecting Urban Greenscapes: Lessons from Populous Uttar Pradesh, India

Globally, urban, peri-urban, as well as rural communities practice foraging for sustenance, natural medicines, materials, and social cohesion. Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, like any other state, is facing dramatic economic transformation and urban sprawling. The urban landscape of the state also represents prevailing foraging wisdom that is often overlooked and ignored. In this chapter, we provide an overview of urban foraging trends and practices in some of the major cities in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Local observations as well as interviews with foragers and street vendors who sell these wild products harvested from urban areas helped us gather data on foraged plant species. The use of wild food was also examined in relation to cultural beliefs that still find its relevance in these cities. We observed traditions still having an impact on the type and frequency of urban foraging of wild plants and their consumption. Foraging of wild plants has the potential to promote conservation of biodiversity and urban green spaces, bio-cultural linkages, and multifunctionality of the green spaces while in certain instances also promoting sustainable nature-based income sources. We observed foraging practice providing access to local, nutritious, and culturally relevant food sources while also fostering an understanding of the environment and an appreciation of local biodiversity. In addition, foraging also provided meaningful livelihoods that are nature based, which promote equity and social justice and create multifunctional green spaces in urban areas. The concept of urban foraging in Uttar Pradesh is supported by a sense of belonging, place-based attachment, nature connectedness, and bio-cultural heritage, which has strengthened the dietary diversity of urban dwellers, but threat to urban foraging has been observed from shrinking urban green spaces. The chapter attempts to bring attention to the relevance of green spaces in the context of one of the populated states of the country with strong ties with nature and urban forging relevance. The study stresses the need of promotion of urban foraging to improve place-based attachment for conserving remaining islands of biodiversity and lesser known wild edibles in the cities.