From First Experiments to a Living Landscape: The Mumbai Collective

A brief glimpse into how the landscape has evolved, from its early beginnings to where it stands today. 

Economic Zone transformation at the Mumbai Collective

What began as a 104-acre stretch of basaltic plateau, once marked by red silt soils and seasonal nalas, has slowly evolved into one of Beforest’s most promising landscapes. The Mumbai Collective sits between the hills of Raigad, a region shaped by ancient lava flows, monsoon-fed springs, and fertile clay-loam soils. In the early surveys, its contours told stories of resilience: natural springs, eight flowing nalas, and native grasses that thrived even after the harshest summers. From these early site studies emerged a design rooted in ecology and self-reliance. Each slope and stream informed a zoning plan: wilderness zones – left for regeneration, combined zones or food forests and soil restoration, and economic zones for high-yield agroforestry and orchards.

The aim was simple: let the land decide its purpose, not the other way around.

Over time, these ideas found their rhythm. Contour trenches began catching monsoon runoff, native trees stitched back wildlife corridors, and the first agroforestry trials tested mango, lemon, cashew, and jamun, intercropped with banana, papaya, and pineapple. The red soils, once prone to erosion, are now anchored by roots and held by boomerang bunds. Even the old adivasi routes through the land continue to coexist, connecting the estate gently to the communities that have lived beside it for generations.

Aerial view of the trial Plot

Today, the Mumbai Collective is more than a landscape in progress – it’s a living system learning to balance food, forest, and community. With every season, its transformation grows visible: rainwater stored in ponds, bees returning to native blooms, and the first canopies taking shape where once there was only grassland.

This is what it means to be part of a collective – to regenerate not just land, but a way of living.