A terrace forest in Delhi has travelled all the way to Los Angeles.
After The Better Indiafeatured 23-year-old Aman Sharma’s rooftop urban forest on social media, a filmmaker based in Los Angeles came across his story and reached out to him with an opportunity to be featured in an upcoming documentary.
For Aman, whose terrace is now home to more than 500 native plants and attracts over 200 bird species and 25 butterfly species, the message came as an unexpected reminder of how far a story can travel.
From a Delhi rooftop to a thriving ecosystem
Aman’s connection with birds began when he was a child. He would wake up before school to watch them from his balcony, and seeing a bulbul build its nest nearby deepened his curiosity about the natural world.
That interest eventually grew into bird photography and wildlife documentation. Over the years, Aman began sharing Delhi’s lesser-known wildlife online and built Birds of India, a platform that today reaches nearly 900,000 followers.
During the COVID-19 lockdown, when visiting forests and natural habitats was no longer possible, Aman began looking at the unused terrace of his home differently.
“If I can’t go to the birds, I’ll make the birds come to me,” he thought.
What started as a lockdown experiment has grown into a thriving urban ecosystem, showing how even a single rooftop can create space for native biodiversity.
With guidance from his grandmother, he started growing native trees, flowering plants, fruit-bearing species and vegetables that could provide food and shelter for local wildlife.
There were failures along the way. Plants died, some experiments did not work, and Aman kept adapting.
Over time, the once-bare rooftop grew into an urban forest with more than 500 native plants. Aman says the space has since recorded visits from over 200 bird species and 25 butterfly species, including sunbirds, kingfishers and parakeets.
Watch Aman’s original story on The Better India.
When TBI’s story reached Los Angeles
When The Better India’s English social media team featured Aman’s journey, the story resonated with thousands of people who were inspired by what one individual had achieved in a limited urban space.
But the impact did not stop at engagement online.
Among those who came across the story was a filmmaker based in Los Angeles. Deeply inspired by Aman’s efforts to create a thriving ecosystem in the heart of Delhi, the filmmaker reached out with an opportunity to feature his work in an upcoming documentary.
For Aman, the opportunity could take a project that began on the terrace of his family home to audiences far beyond India.
Aman’s Delhi terrace is now home to over 500 native plants, attracting more than 200 bird species and 25 butterfly species.
It also brings greater attention to the idea at the heart of his work: urban spaces, however limited, can be designed to support native plants, birds, butterflies and other forms of biodiversity.
Aman began with an unused rooftop and a desire to bring birds closer to home.
Years later, that rooftop has become a thriving ecosystem, and a story from one Delhi terrace has now travelled thousands of kilometres further.
