COS 115-4 - Personal green spaces during the Pandemic-A study of people’s attitudes and motivations, towards urban home gardens during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangalore, India.

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about unprecedented changes in a short span of time in many walks of life and people’s living. Being in a lockdown, especially in urban areas has led to changes in the way people perceive nature around them and within their homes. Scholarship provides limited urban ecological investigations in the cities of the global south and even fewer from Indian cities. To begin to address this gap, in this exploratory study, we looked at how people perceived, the changes they experienced in their home gardens and in the nature around their neighbourhood due to the lockdown in Bangalore, India. Data was collected by interviewing thirty, home garden owners in the city over a period of two months between June and July 2021. We recorded various perceptions and motivations by the garden owners regarding the changes in nature around them and within their gardens during the lockdown. These perceptions were then grouped into four major themes as follows. A. The perceived changes in nature and environment during the lockdown B. Social Dimensions C. Biodiversity observations and D. Challenges and opportunities. Participants had some similar and a few diverse perceptions for the above themes. A common observation was that, most respondents felt, the lockdown had led to an increase in their curiosity and observation towards nature. Some respondents highlighted that their enthusiasm towards gardening had increased. Some participants also recognised the importance of home gardens as a safe outdoor space where they can enjoy nature. However, there were a few respondents who mentioned that they did not observe any imminent changes in the nature around them, due to the lockdown. While the lockdown has implications on a global scale, further research is needed to assess the changes at local scale to understand the impacts on people and nature.