Rani Bagh - a living symbiosis of built and natural heritage
The Save Rani Bagh Botanical Garden Foundation, a Mumbai-based registered public charitable trust, has toiled since April 2007 to protect, preserve and promote Mumbai's sole heritage botanical garden of V.J.B. Botanical Udyan & Zoo, popularly called Rani Bagh. Spread over 60 acres, Mumbai’s largest and most-visited public space, Rani Bagh is a verdant haven, home to 4,131 trees of 256 species that supports a rich ecosystem. In addition to carrying out struggle-oriented activities to ensure that the botanical garden’s trees, its space and accessibility remain sacrosanct, the Foundation conducts talks, screens films, plants trees, installs tree information plaques and hosts free nature-cum-heritage walks to popularise it. [Note: Rani Bagh’s official name was V.J.B. Udyan & Zoo until it was changed in December 2022 to V.J.B. Botanical Udyan & Zoo at the Foundation’s initiative.]
Two major path-breaking proposals of the Foundation to ensure that the botanical garden and its trees have the iron-clad official protection saw the light of day in 2022: In September the Development Plan 2014-2034 conferred upon the Rani Bagh the official designation ‘botanical garden’ and the term ‘botanical’ was added to the official name in December. Mumbai’s sole heritage botanical garden now has a brand new name and official recognition: V.J.B. BOTANICAL UDYAN & Zoo!
