Forest farms, a way of life

Nature collaborates with human ingenuity, painting a vivid picture of thriving ecosystems and sustainable living in their Hyderabad collective, located in Bodakonda village

Hyderabad: Amidst Hyderabad’s breathtaking landscapes, Beforest, a firm that was founded about five years ago, have a collective that has become a canvas where the art of regeneration takes shape.

Nature collaborates with human ingenuity, painting a vivid picture of thriving ecosystems and sustainable living in their Hyderabad collective, located in Bodakonda village. The collective is spread over 132 acres and is almost sold out. The firm also has plans to launch a phase-2 very shortly, adjacent to phase-1.

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Beforest carries out permaculture activities on a scale of 100 acres in each of its collectives to reimagine a forest-friendly lifestyle and build food, water and power security for the community.

“A collective is a group of individuals who come together with a single objective. At Beforest, that objective is to live sustainably on a single, large, expansive landscape,” said Sunith Reddy, CEO and co-founder, Beforest Lifestyle Solutions.

They build lakes, forest patches and ecological zones to achieve multiple microclimates that help in growing a food forest to fulfil the needs of the community dependent on that landscape.

With an agenda to create food, water and power-secure landscapes over a 10-15 year time frame, Beforest studies the landscape and designs the space to achieve their shared vision.

“When we first discovered the landscape of the collective in Hyderabad, it was completely dry and barren. However, with water management practices in place, we are working towards securing water to support the growth of food in the food production zone (FPZ),” he added.

In just two years, they have increased the lake capacity from 30 million litres to 50 million litres and now have more biodiversve sightings across the estate, especially near the water bodies and at the FPZ near the pollinator-friendly species.

“The FPZ is the area in which the food is grown which caters to the members and the Beforest staff that live on the estate. The FPZ is spread over an area of approximately 18 acres dedicated to growing a variety of vegetables and grains,” he added.

The FPZ zone is further divided into four blocks consisting of 1,600 veggie beds, paddy fields, millets and pulses fields.

At the collective, Beforest has an active on-ground farm team that comprises farmers, civil workers and architects.