The board game that connects you with wild, edible greens

The cover of the board game, Map The Wild.
The cover of the board game, Map The Wild.

Summary

Map the Wild is an engaging board game that teaches players about edible and medicinal plants found in urban areas

The piquant wood sorrel is used in appetising chutneys and goes into salads; the sour butterfly pea flowers make nourishing tisanes; and the bitter balloon vine go into delicious rasams and chilas. These ingredients now feature in a fascinating new board game called Map the Wild.

Designed by two nature enthusiasts—Shruti Tharayil and Rahul Hasija—Map the Wild brings edible and medicinal plants to India’s homes. The two-player game requires each participant to design a challenge for their opponent, where they manoeuvre through the city’s wilderness and find medicinal and edible plant antidotes for the problems they encounter en route. From caffeine cravings and hunger pangs to allergies and toothache, get ready to find the green solution to all these obstacles in this climate-altered world.

Chennai-based Tharayil runs the popular Instagram page Forgotten Greens. It shares information about uncultivated edible and wild plants commonly found in and around cities. Through her posts and her curated Wild Food Walks, Tharayil is building awareness about urban green spaces and, as she calls them, the ‘ecological treasures that often remain hidden in plain sight’.

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Jaipur’s Hasija is the founder of Swacardz, where he builds board and card games to facilitate holistic communication. Having lived a Map the Wild-like life for over a decade on a forest farm on the outskirts of Udaipur, the game designer gained first-hand knowledge of medicinal and edible plants, and realised the importance of preserving this information. Around mid-2022, the duo began thinking about how they could convert their shared knowledge into a game that would be appealing for people across ages, and the blueprint for Map the Wild slowly began to take shape.

“It took us two years to launch the game," says Tharayil. “Apart from the research and the design, we also spent a lot of time conducting playtests. We worked with the students of Anubhutee Learning Centre in Pune and with some of the followers of the Forgotten Greens' page. Their feedback helped us shape the game and make it an enjoyable experience for everyone," she adds.

'Map the Wild' was launched in September 2024, and the first batch of the game sold out in less than a month. Play facilitator Niom Samson lent support in the game's conceptualisation, and illustrator Labonie Roy brought its artwork to life. The team is already working on the second print while continuing to actively engage with the game's audience and seek funding opportunities to broaden its reach.

Hasija adds that they are also working on a handbook that will encourage people to identify plants in and around their vicinity. “Right from the start, we knew that we did not want the game to be just educational. We wanted people to have fun playing it while also becoming cognisant of the fact that many of these plants play a crucial role in their ecosystems. This is why we decided to introduce a board so people can experience movement and envision landscapes," he says.

Map the Wild currently spotlights 13 edible and medicinal plants and also includes roadblocks in the form of plants that are considered invasive. The board game is suitable for players aged 14 and above and has found an audience among educators and parents, as well as among nature enthusiasts.

Renuka Pooja of Terrum India — a platform that connects nature lovers through themed meet-ups and activities — shares that the game’s snappy visuals leave an impression on the players, and even if they cannot recall the plant names, they realise how these plants have specific benefits. “We have played Map the Wild at our community meet-ups in Cubbon Park, Bengaluru. While initially following the instructions, we soon realised that the game allows you to get creative and iterate with your rules. It is a lot of fun and makes people think about the flora around them. They see that not everything is a weed; they can also be eaten and have health benefits," she adds.

Anusha Murthy, one half of the food collective Edible Issues that encourages conversations on the Indian food system — shares that Map the Wild enables its players to visualise the potential floral biodiversity out there. Edible Issues recently featured the game at the Serendipity Arts Festival in Panjim, Goa, and Murthy believes that such visual cues through games and illustrations play an important role in highlighting the issue of dietary homogenisation. “Most of the greens we encounter in markets and what we consume have become standardised. 'Map the Wild' presents an interesting way to think about the rich biodiversity of edible plants we could access," she adds.

While the approaches may vary, both Tharayil and Hasija emphasise the need to keep these conversations going. "The urban flora exhibits so much resilience and thrives amidst all the development. We want people to realise that while these plants have certain benefits, they are also life forms that support and interact with other species. The best outcome of the game would be for people to step out and make these connections for themselves," adds Hasija.

Map the Wild is available for pre-order on swacardz.com.

Sharmila Vaidyanathan is a freelance writer from Bengaluru.

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