Written in the wake of the Kedarnath flash floods of 2013, Himmat Sawar gives a fictional twist to the devastating events that unfolded during the flood. A novel for children, the book attempts to initiate a conversation between literature and ecology by bringing together the relationship between humans, animals, and the physical environment. Attributing the floods to anthropogenic interventions, Himmat Sawar offers a critique of urbanization and commercialization for a young, impressionable mind, charging us as planetary killers who cannot think beyond our short-term survival. The reader is made aware of how our actions affect nature and how it affects us in return.
November 2022, volume 46, No 11