Mountains have been shrouded in mystique since time immemorial. They are loved for their beauty and revered for being bountiful providers of water, food and energy. The sheer physical challenge they present to those trying to scale them commands respect! In Up the Mountains of India, they come alive with Mala Kumar’s lucid writing!
Mala Kumar has captured India’s geologically varied mountains and described their complex formation in simple jargon-free language, with examples that children can easily relate to. Explanations are animated as she writes about the people, plants and animals that call these mountainous regions home. At the outset she sets the stage for this dramatic journey with mind-boggling timescales from the formation of the universe to the appearance of Homo Sapiens, sandwiching the formation of Aravallis, the oldest mountains, forming 1200 million years ago to the youngest—the Himalayas rising some 50 million years ago with the processes responsible for their formations depicted through simple well-labelled cartoons.