Mumbai | September 7, 2026
Malabar Hill’s Hanging Garden will host a public butterfly walk on September 26 as part of iNaturalist’s global Community Science Programme, allowing residents to photograph butterflies and upload their observations to an international biodiversity database.
The event will mark the first participation of the 160-year-old garden in the programme, which is scheduled to run globally from September 18 to 28. Participants will be guided by Mulund-based naturalist and biotechnologist Gaurav Soman, who has previously conducted four butterfly walks at the garden.
During the walk, visitors will use the iNaturalist mobile application to submit photographs and brief descriptions of the butterflies they see. The application suggests possible identifications, which can then be reviewed or refined by a global community of naturalists. Verified observations become open data that can be used by scientists, conservationists and researchers.
The event is being organised as part of residents’ Save Hanging Garden initiative. The campaign began in 2023 after a plan was announced to remove 389 trees at the historic precinct. According to the latest plan cited in the report, 90 trees are now proposed to be removed. Residents have since organised as many as 14 nature walks at the garden to build awareness about its ecological character.
The garden’s setting is central to the biodiversity documentation effort. Built over a concrete reservoir, the Hanging Garden contains shrubs, bushes and smaller tropical and native trees whose roots do not penetrate deeply into the ground. Residents and naturalists say these features create suitable conditions for butterflies, while the garden’s hilltop location, surrounding greenery and sea breeze contribute to its habitat.
Experts have documented 40 butterfly species at the site, while residents have recorded more than 70 species, according to Soman. The upcoming walk is intended to help verify and make these observations available to a wider network of researchers and academics.
“Since science has been limited to researchers and academics historically, the Community Science Fest invites citizens to contribute to the fraternity and their findings are gauged using the same protocols,” Soman said, according to the report. He added that the data could help researchers track rare species and identify observations from local or community habitats.
Soman said the event would begin with a small group, including senior citizens who have taken part in earlier walks, and that students were also being encouraged to participate. New users will need to learn iNaturalist’s protocols for submitting photographs and observations.
The initiative places a public citizen-science activity within an ongoing debate over the future of the Hanging Garden and its trees. The September 26 walk will provide residents with an opportunity to document the garden’s butterfly population while contributing observations to an open international platform.
