What is
The Mumbai Collective
If you want to change the world, start in your own backyard.
Our collectives are deeply rooted in a connect with nature. The Mumbai Collective is no different and is a manifestation of our desire to create a community that encourages its members to move away from their ‘apart’ments and find their inspiration and connect with nature & each other.
The grassland at The Mumbai Collective – our open canvas
After our collectives in Hyderabad and Coorg, we received a lot of requests from Maharashtra to do something similar near Mumbai/Pune. This is a perfect canvas for creating a food, water and power secure landscape that can provide complete self-sufficiency for 100 families – The Mumbai Collective.
Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans
John Lennon
Farming Collectives
The need to connect with nature is undeniable in an urban audience. With most, this manifests as ownership of a farm. But running and managing a farm is not easy and after the initial years of enthusiasm, most farm owners lose interest and most farms go into a limbo. We saw this repeat again and again before we decided to device a wholistic solution that addresses this innate need.
Farming collectives are our answer. Collective ownership of large landscapes have happened in the past – sacred groves, community forests, etc. It has many advantages over individual ownership.
The Mumbai Collective is our third collective after Coorg and Hyderabad. We imagine this as an exclusive community of like minded individuals with a focus on creating a completely self sufficient, food, water, power secure landscape supporting all the basic needs of 100 families.
T
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What is life, if full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare
W.H.Davies
Reimagining Life
Imagine your day starting with an orchestra of birdcalls. Aren’t they the perfect alarm! A morning walk along the trails through the wilderness zone or a workout in the Food production zone of the collective should get the blood flowing for the rest of the day.
On the way back, pick up some fresh produce or just some berries for a morning smoothie from the edible pathways. If you are not the one for a workout, you may indulge yourself with some deep thinking, at one of the introspection points.
Find an ergonomic stone that will serve as your work desk for the day under the shade of a mango tree near one of the water bodies.
Take a break at noon and refresh yourself with a farm to table lunch. An afternoon siesta perhaps?
Let the inner poet come to life. There is nothing like a sunset to touch base with those emotions. Have a nice quiet dinner as the birds settle down and denizens of the night come out.
Over a 150 families have chosen this lifestyle in our collectives in Hyderabad and Coorg. You can too at The Mumbai Collective.
security
Food, Water and Power
Our approach of land management divides the area broadly into economic, mixed use and wilderness zones.
The Economic zone hosts areas for annual food production (fpz), housing, storage, staff accomodation etc. The fpz will account for enough grains, pulses, millets, veggies for a 100 families grown in a completely natural way.
Grow not what your heart desires but what the land allows
The Combined zone usually has a host of perennial produce crops growing intermingling with native species. This is an area of mixed usage, livestock grazing as well active bird and butterfly sanctuaries.
The wilderness zone is where we preserve our natural resources. We derive value here by extracting eco system services like the preservation of our springs, replenishment of our biomass, housing bird colonies, etc.
An integrated pest management system including barrier species like marigold and neem will help maintain the diversity without any external intervention.
Power Security at the Mumbai Collective would be a hybrid of solar and grid power. Using cleverly designed earth homes, gravity fed water systems and biomass heaters, we are confident the consumption can be cut down by 50% atleast.
Water security is something that most cities across the world have failed to provide. Our estimates suggest that we need about 10 million litres of water to provide domestic water security for 100 families. Considering this region receives over 2500mm of rainfall every year, this is should not be a problem.
What is most important for water security, however, is soil health. Our studies show that a 3% increase in soil carbon raises the absorption capacity to an extent where the soil acts like a giant sponge soaking up all the water that falls on it during the monsoon.
Interested?
There is a huge circle of concern which encompasses most urban audience. Within this is a circle of action. This circle believes in doing something for the change they wish to see.
Our community falls bang in the centre of this circle of action. It involves people from different professions, different age groups, all having the thread of sustainable living holding them together.
If you want to move the needle, a little every day towards a sustainable life and join the 150+ other families who have already come onboard, then click on ‘Get Invited’ button below and someone from our side will get in touch.
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