Tag Archives: Environment

Having dedicated six years of painstaking labour in compiling this book, authors Chaudhary and Kumar must be applauded for the outcome.

Kumar-Rao skilfully offers readers a deep and thorough understanding of the fragile landscapes using extensive investigative journalism and vivid descriptions of challenging circumstances.

A book on wildlife conservation would not be complete without a look at women’s relationships with trees—recall the Chipko movement —and that’s what Neha Sinha and Shweta Taneja do by introducing the reader to Ghazala Shahabuddin (`The Oaks call Her Home’)

Very few Indian scholars have looked into these processes or, in general, the politics of conservation, which makes Tigers are our Brothers a rich resource and a persuasive invite to further inquiry and writing. Anyone in the field of conservation knows that the killing of wild animals is a highly sensitive topic. Ambika Aiyadurai engages with it courageously and does what is needed to break the silence.

Nevertheless, as studies on British colonialism in India quintessentially sought to figure out the transition of non-European countries under colonial dominance, British engagement with plants and their medicinal value became too marginal to find mention in scholarly enquiries.

The work was initially undertaken as a project that was part of a research programme in Jadavpur University on the environmental history of South Asia.

That an academic book on literary representations of Indian forests provides a searching examination of Indian nationhood in the last 150 years makes it already a remarkable work of criticism; that its vantage—the forests of India—also yields a kaleidoscopic view of India’s diverse and ancient past of ecological engagement makes Alan Johnson’s India’s Forests an invaluable work of literary and environmentalist historiography. In an excellent, wide-ranging introduction

The Story of India’s Cheetahs by Divyabhanusinh Chavda has been written with the intent to arouse interest in the animal and to create an awareness about the Cheetah reintroduction programme.

Climate Justice in India edited by Prakash Kashwan presents a thought-provoking collection of insights that diverges from traditional discussions on climate issues.

It is challenging for anyone to grasp the gravity of the impact of the climate crisis on our planet. It is even more challenging to share these concerns with children and students without it becoming overwhelming or depressing.

The story of Climate Change and its impact is not very old. It is a by-product of our development in recent years. However, the debate around it and the issues related to it are reduced to sloganeering and jargons in the developed world community.

A few weeks ago in Himachal Pradesh, this year’s monsoon flooded towns and swelled rivers, causing buildings and bridges to collapse, entire mountain sides to cave in, and cars and concrete structures to be washed away in an angry, muddy, and swollen Beas. It was a harrowing reminder of what we humans do to the land we live on.

Board books are one of the first ways in which a baby encounters printed words. It’s through these books that a fundamental journey of decoding, and making meaning begins. Board books with their sensory experience of touch, visual contrast and animation, bring joy and excitement to a child’s learning experience.

Reading Wild Treasures & Adventures: A Forester’s Diary feels like stepping into the cosy home of one of your parent’s friends, who has the most captivating profession.

The Adventures of Sirdar is an interesting story about the life of a herd of wild elephants. It begins with the dramatic selection of ‘Sirdar’, a thirty year-old male elephant as the youngest leader of the herd and his life from then on. The author, Dhan Gopal Mukherji, describes how Sirdar leads his herd.

The forest department wanted to capture Lightning Tusker. But he is no ordinary tusker, and the most experienced experts are summoned to do the job. And at the end of this insufferable 107-page novel, they fail. This novel could not have been more than 20,000 words but I struggled to finish it.

A freely roaming centipede in the bathroom or a happy family of lice in our hair is the stuff of nightmares and feverish dreams. In horror, we often ask, ‘Why on earth do we need a mosquito?’ As it is with mother nature, there is always an answer. Turns out, there would be no life on earth without these seemingly disgusting and terrifying little beings. Biologist and Naturalist EO Wilson rightfully called them, ‘the little things that run the world’.

All of 16 pages, this children’s book is one that must find its rightful place in every library across schools and homes. It is appropriately narrated without any purple prose, and it is about big, old and ancient trees. No poem has a single unnecessary description and the message conveyed is deep to arouse the child’s curious mind.
The tile itself is an invitation to the child, as well as the reading and thinking adult, to move away from the obvious. Trees surround us, many of us have seen saplings grow into trees that today provide shade and comfort during summer months, and yet, few of us have the time to think about trees more deeply.

The book gives us a window into Jaishree’s world—both professional and a bit of personal. As a child, she was sensitive, loved climbing up trees and being close to plants and nature in her grandmother’s garden. Even after growing up, she fondly remembers a tree that was her ‘friend’.

How much do we know about the trees in our surroundings? Strange Trees may make you ask this question and look around. Set during a school summer vacation in the fictional Suryanagar village, this book explores the interdependent lives of trees, birds, animals, and humans.