The Bengaluru metropolis has been home to urban parks, botanical gardens and reserve forests at its periphery. However, the city has experienced some extreme changes in its landscape and environment over the years, which have also affected the urban wildlife it supports in both good and bad ways. Birds are one such example of wildlife that has coexisted in most urban landscapes alongside humans. Bengaluru still boasts of being a paradise for bird watching though  the number and species of birds that one gets to see in and around the city has changed with time. We are designing a board game that attempts to capture this relationship between urbanization and its effects on avian biodiversity in the context of Bengaluru city.

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Our game is a playful resource that will help develop a deeper understanding of not only identification and documentation of the current bird-life of Bengaluru but also help create awareness about the changing cityscape that affects the life-history of birds. Our audience are mainly young adults, but we also aim to keep it accessible to all residents of Bengaluru across different age groups. We envision the interactive format and across the table conversations prompted by the play experience of this game, to enable its players to learn about the challenges that an ever-changing urban environment creates for birds. We hope that the game will invoke curiosity and sensitize its players to the changes in their city and their impact on urban wildlife, making them more aware, empathetic and interested in the natural world around them. 

This project has been funded as a part of Bengaluru Sustainability Forum’s Small Grants Programme. If you would like to know more about this game, do visit our blog where we are sharing our journey as we meet specific milestones.

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