Abstract Urban foraging is widely prevalent globally, and can provide foragers benefits like additional income and nutritional supplements. However, urban foraging is largely understudied and we have little information on types of species foraged, patterns of foraging, socio-economic profile of foragers, and impact of urbanization on foraging. In this study, we aimed to identify patterns of urban foraging in one of the fastest growing cities in the world, Bengaluru in India. Our specific objectives were to identify a) the foragers b) species foraged and foraging sites c) impact of urbanization on foraging and d) the barriers to foraging. We collected our information through semi-structured interviews with residents from four sites selected across a gradient of urbanization. Sixteen per cent of the respondents reported that they foraged, most of who were women (97%) belonging to socially (90%) and economically (81%) disadvantaged groups. Seventy-six species were foraged across the four sites for food (76%), medicine (26%), and cultural practices (18%). Foraging occurred in unused land (32%), parks (32%), farmlands (12%), native villages (12%), nearby woodlands (9%) and home gardens (3%). We found significant differences in foragers along a gradient of urbanization (chi square = 34.56, p = 1.5 × 10-7, df = 3) with most foragers at the least urbanized site (40% of the respondents) and least foragers at the most urbanized site (2% of the respondents). Lack of knowledge of foraged species (66%) and lack of access (55%) were the biggest barriers to foraging. Our study demonstrates that foraging occurs in a metropolis like Bengaluru with foragers generally belonging to lower socio-economic backgrounds, who are most vulnerable to changes due to urbanization. Redesigning urban environments to create green spaces for forgeable species to flourish, that are made accessible to marginalized communities, is essential for their nutritional and cultural well-being.

中文翻译：

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班加罗尔城市觅食模式

摘要 城市觅食在全球范围内广泛流行，可为觅食者提供额外收入和营养补充等好处。然而，城市觅食在很大程度上没有得到充分研究，我们对觅食的物种类型、觅食模式、觅食者的社会经济概况以及城市化对觅食的影响知之甚少。在这项研究中，我们旨在确定世界上发展最快的城市之一——印度班加罗尔的城市觅食模式。我们的具体目标是确定 a) 觅食者 b) 觅食的物种和觅食地点 c) 城市化对觅食的影响和 d) 觅食的障碍。我们通过对城市化梯度中选定的四个地点的居民进行半结构化访谈来收集信息。16% 的受访者报告说他们觅食，其中大多数是女性 (97%)，属于社会 (90%) 和经济 (81%) 弱势群体。在四个地点觅食了 76 个物种，用于食物 (76%)、药物 (26%) 和文化实践 (18%)。觅食发生在未使用的土地 (32%)、公园 (32%)、农田 (12%)、原生村庄 (12%)、附近的林地 (9%) 和家庭花园 (3%)。我们发现沿城市化梯度（卡方 = 34.56，p = 1.5 × 10-7，df = 3）的觅食者存在显着差异，大多数觅食者位于城市化程度最低的地点（40% 的受访者），而觅食者最多城市化场地（占受访者的 2%）。缺乏对觅食物种的了解 (66%) 和无法获得 (55%) 是觅食的最大障碍。我们的研究表明，觅食发生在像班加罗尔这样的大都市，觅食者通常属于较低的社会经济背景，他们最容易受到城市化带来的变化的影响。重新设计城市环境，为可锻造物种创造绿色空间，让边缘化社区可以进入，这对于他们的营养和文化福祉至关重要。