Alankar Square in Nagpur: The City’s Thriving Plant Nursery Hub

thenewsdirt
Jan 20
7 min read

Every monsoon, a stretch of pavement at Alankar Talkies Square in Nagpur transforms into a lively open-air plant market.

Nagpur in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, sees this unlikely green marketplace spring up along a busy thoroughfare once known mainly for its cinema hall. Rows of potted palms, flowering shrubs, and saplings line the footpath here, drawing in passers-by and avid gardeners alike.

For years, this seasonal burst of greenery has been turning heads and enticing residents to pull over for a closer look. It has become clear that Alankar Square’s plant sellers have cultivated the centre of a blooming nursery business in the city.

How Alankar Square Became a Green Market Hub

Alankar Talkies Square, named after the old single-screen cinema that dominates the junction, has gradually gained fame for something very different from films: plants.

Over the years, as the first rain clouds gather, dozens of vendors begin congregating on the broad sidewalk, displaying an array of plants and garden supplies.

Elderly residents recount how this practice has been a familiar sight almost every year for the past decade or more. In the absence of a dedicated horticultural marketplace in Nagpur, small entrepreneurs seized the opportunity to meet the city’s gardening needs right on a main road.

The location is advantageous, situated between the residential neighbourhood of Shankar Nagar and the commercial Sitabuldi area, which naturally attracts foot traffic and potential customers from across town. The wide pavement along North Ambazari Road (where Alankar Square lies) offers enough space for vendors to lay out their greenery without immediately spilling onto the roadway.

What began as a few enterprising individuals selling potted plants has now grown into a collective of nursery sellers recognised citywide.

During peak season, dozens of makeshift stalls crop up under colourful tarpaulins, each brimming with ornamental saplings, flowering plants, and earthen flower pots.

The variety on offer is considerable, from common houseplants and seasonal flower beds to fruit tree saplings and medicinal herbs, turning the area into a one-stop shop for plant lovers.

Many shoppers in Nagpur know that if they need a particular plant or some budget-friendly foliage to brighten their home, Alankar Square is the place to go.

The prices tend to be competitive, as most sellers source their stock directly from growers or wholesale nurseries on the outskirts of the city. In fact, some of these vendors are small-scale growers from around Vidarbha who bring their plants to this urban hub for better sales.

By clustering together, the sellers have made it convenient for customers to compare prices and quality, effectively making this stretch a vibrant nursery bazaar in the heart of the city.

Monsoon Season Sparks a Blooming Business

The plant business at Alankar Square truly comes alive with the onset of the monsoon.

Nagpur’s rainy season, roughly from June through August, provides the perfect conditions for planting, the soil is moist and temperatures are moderate, ideal for young saplings to take root. Local gardeners and homeowners often wait for the rains to start their planting, and the vendors time their appearance accordingly.

Each year, as soon as the first monsoon showers drench the city, the otherwise ordinary footpath by Alankar Talkies turns into a greenery-laden marketplace almost overnight.

Bright green saplings of all sorts, from marigolds and roses to curry leaf and mango plants, suddenly line the street, capitalising on the season’s gardening fervour.

The Maharashtra government’s massive tree plantation drives in recent years (including campaigns targeting tens of millions of new saplings each monsoon) have further boosted public interest in planting.

Riding this wave of enthusiasm, the Alankar Square vendors stock up on popular varieties and even rare plants, ensuring that curious buyers find plenty of options.

Notably, the sellers at this square adjust their offerings with the seasons. In summer months, when planting activity slows, the same pavement might host stalls selling earthen water pots or bamboo chick blinds, items suited for the heat.

During winter, some of these hawkers pivot to selling warm cushions, quilts, or decorative lights for the festive season. Come monsoon, however, nearly all of them switch to plants and related items, knowing well that this is when demand peaks.

This seasonal adaptability has helped the vendors sustain their livelihood year-round, but it is the rainy season that remains the highlight. During this period, the footpath essentially becomes a temporary plant nursery. Customers from various parts of the city, even from surrounding towns in Vidarbha, flock here to browse the lush displays.

The atmosphere is often vibrant: buyers discuss soil and sunlight requirements with the vendors, who are generally knowledgeable gardeners themselves. The scene of a usually grey urban sidewalk turned into a mini-jungle of potted greens is a delightful surprise for many first-time visitors.

Convenience is another reason this seasonal nursery thrives. The market’s location along a main road means people can stop by without a dedicated trip to a distant garden centre.

It is common to see motorists pulling over their two-wheelers or cars, drawn by the sight of fresh foliage, to make a quick purchase of a basil plant or a hibiscus sapling for their home. Some even liken it to a plant festival that recurs every year.

However, this popularity has a side effect. Vehicles stopping abruptly and crowds gathering can cause brief traffic snarls at the square.

Especially on weekends during the monsoon, the roadside gets crowded with parked scooters and people carrying armfuls of greenery, which can slow down the traffic. This unintended congestion is one of the trade-offs of an informal market blossoming in a public thoroughfare.

Encroachments and the City’s Response

The success of Alankar Square’s plant bazaar has not come without challenges. Because these stalls occupy public footpaths and parts of the roadside, they technically fall under illegal encroachments in the eyes of city authorities.

Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) officials have periodically grappled with how to manage this impromptu market.

On the one hand, the nursery stalls provide a service appreciated by citizens. On the other hand, they obstruct pedestrian pathways and sometimes spill onto the road, raising safety and traffic concerns. Over the years, there have been complaints from some locals about the clutter and the difficulty of walking on those pavements when the market is in full swing. The popularity of the spot ironically made it more conspicuous, prompting authorities to take action on occasion.

One notable crackdown took place in August 2014, when NMC conducted a drive to clear encroachments from the footpath around Alankar Talkies Square. Acting on the mandate to keep public walkways clear, a team of municipal workers and officials dismantled the plant stalls and removed the rows of pots occupying the pavement.

The clearance drive extended from Alankar Square up to the nearby Nagpur University Library Square, sweeping away not just plant vendors but other seasonal hawkers as well. At the time, this action was met with a mix of relief and scepticism. Some motorists welcomed the suddenly wide-open footpath, hoping for smoother traffic, while many regular customers and vendors felt it was a heavy-handed move that snuffed out a charming seasonal enterprise.

Observers noted that similar eviction drives had happened before, only for the hawkers to return after a short interval. Indeed, the 2014 clean-up turned out to be short-lived. Within weeks, and certainly by the next monsoon, the plant sellers were back in their usual spots.

This cat-and-mouse pattern is reflective of a broader issue in Nagpur. The city has over a lakh (hundred thousand) street vendors of all kinds, but only a small fraction are officially licensed or assigned space in recognised vending zones.

In theory, Nagpur’s town vending plan provides for dozens of authorised hawking zones across the city, but in practice, many of these remain undemarcated or insufficient. Unlicensed vendors often have nowhere to go but the old familiar spots where customers know to find them.

Alankar Square is one such spot that has effectively become a traditional marketplace without formal approval. When the authorities clamp down, the sellers lose income, and the public loses a convenient service, but once officials turn their attention elsewhere, the lure of steady demand pulls the vendors back. As one local observer quipped, these periodic anti-encroachment drives are largely symbolic. The “green footpath” at Alankar Talkies reliably springs back to life whenever enforcement eases.

City planners and community leaders have debated solutions to integrate this impromptu nursery hub into the urban fabric.

Some have suggested allocating an alternative space nearby for the plant vendors, or organising them under a cooperative for better regulation.

Others argue that as long as the vendors keep a lane of the footpath clear and manage traffic responsibly, the market should be allowed to operate during the monsoon months, given its popularity.

So far, no permanent resolution has been reached. The dynamic between Alankar Square’s plant sellers and the civic authorities continues to evolve with each passing year.

A Growing Tradition in the Heart of the City

Despite the occasional crackdowns, the plant sellers of Alankar Square have persisted and become part of Nagpur’s seasonal rhythm.

Their presence each monsoon is now almost an expected event, a sign of the rains and a cue for gardening enthusiasts to start planting. In a city that is rapidly urbanising, the little green corner carved out by these vendors offers a refreshing break from concrete.

It is a place where urban dwellers connect with nature in a very direct way: bargaining over a rose bush or getting tips on where to plant a neem sapling. The fact that this hub emerged organically, without institutional backing, speaks to the genuine demand and passion for gardening among the populace.

As Nagpur and the wider Vidarbha region push for more greenery and sustainable living, the role of these grassroots-level nursery markets remains significant.

They make plants accessible and affordable to a broad section of people, arguably contributing to the city’s environmental awareness.

Each year, new customers stumble upon the Alankar Square market and veteran customers return, ensuring that the tradition carries on. While the future may bring changes, perhaps relocation or formalisation, for now, the Alankar Square plant sellers continue to thrive on their own terms.

With the monsoon clouds come the bursts of green on that pavement, and with them, a reminder that a city’s character is often defined by such humble, human-scaled initiatives.

Alankar Talkies Square, once just an intersection with an old cinema, has firmly established itself as Nagpur’s very own seasonal garden bazaar, rooting itself in the city’s identity one sapling at a time.