"Like other international cities that promote their botanical gardens, Bombay too can now take pride in and acknowledge its very own sole heritage botanical garden,” Hutokshi Rustomfram, founder-trustee, Save Rani Bagh Botanical Garden Foundation told Parsiana. Additionally, the trustee stated that "responding to the representation made by the Foundation, the Development Plan 2014-34 for Bombay has accorded due importance and recognition to the park.”
The Foundation’s efforts paid off in 2022, when the Development Plan officially designated the site as a botanical garden with the Bombay Municipal Council (BMC) adding the word "botanical” to the Veermata Jijabai Bhosale Udyan and Zoo. "The new official name will generate greater awareness among citizens who can take pride in (the) official Grade II-B heritage status.
"The Foundation has done a phenomenal job in protecting, preserving and conserving Rani Bagh by democratic means. The efforts that they have put in from day one till the garden got its ‘botanical’ tag, inadvertently giving it a special status, are commendable,” said conservation architect Vikas Dilawari, appreciating the Foundation’s work.
Originally named Victoria Garden, the Zoo, known popularly as Rani Bagh, has "the largest agglomeration of trees in the island city with widest species diversity — 4,131 trees of 256 species belonging to 54 botanical families; 86 tree species are officially declared rare” (see "Rani’s botanical garden,” Events and Personalities, Parsiana, January 21-February 6, 2023). Of the 60-acre public space, the botanical garden occupies 63% of the total area whereas the zoo segment occupies 18%.
"When we heard that this old and historic botanical garden was to be redeveloped, we united to protect it — first as a committee (2007), and then as a registered charitable trust (2012),” Rustomfram told The Free Press Journal (FPJ) on August 17, 2025.
For 18 years she and her a small but powerful women’s group fought the BMC Rs 433 crore (USD 49.17 million) redevelopment plan, using the Right to Information Act, court battles and advocacy to ensure Rani Bagh was preserved and protected for Bombay’s citizens.
From l: Hutokshi Rustomfram; Shubhada Nikharge; Rani Bagh
In 2012, the Foundation had published Rani Bagh 150 Years in collaboration with the National Society of the Friends of the Trees and the Bombay Natural History Society (see "Victoria’s verdant legacy,” Books, Parsiana, August 21, 2017), edited by Rustomfram and Shubhada Nikharge, also a founder-trustee. Subsequently, the Foundation released a Marathi translation, titled Rani Bagh 150 Varsheh.
In 2020, they brought out a short documentary film in English and later a Marathi movie as well. In collaboration with the BMC and the nongovernmental organization NAGAR, the Foundation has launched a free, interactive path-finder app designed to inspire citizens to explore and enjoy the heritage botanical garden and zoo.
"We have worked to enrich and promote the space, creating theme gardens, a butterfly garden, and installing informative plaques on trees and heritage features. Our broader vision is to foster public engagement, especially among children and young people, encouraging pride and joy in this historic green space,” Nikharge told FPJ. S. V.