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History always offers rich pickings and an edited volume of rigorous his¬torical research seldom disappoints. Shifting Ground: People, Animals and Mobil¬ity in India’s Environmental History is an ex¬cellent example and one thing can certainly be said about it—that even though a little unevenly, it shifts ground very effectively. And if I may add, it also shifts boundaries, categories, even time in our understanding of the environment and the changes that con¬tinue to take place here. If informing us about the past is the key aim of historical writing, Shifting Ground does a commendable job. It does more, in fact, and is a significant contri¬bution for that reason—it persuades, even con¬vinces us to re-imagine the past and by im¬plication the present and future as well. The canvas it explores is wide (a little too wide sometimes for one volume), the topics rich and diverse, the details meticulous, and the writing generally has a good flow.