Book: Up The Mountains Of India

Finally it arrived! The author Mala Kumar connected with me a couple of years ago. She was writing a book on the mountains of India aimed primarily at young readers and wanted a geologist to help with fact checking some of the contents. We have had quite a few email exchanges since then, and my curiosity about this book has been growing even since. Mala has written over 40 books for children and this one is sure to enthrall them. But why just children? Anyone interested in India's varied physiography, geology, and wildlife, should read this book. 

I loved the way Mala has used everyday analogies to describe complex geology. One of my favorite examples is using a stuck piano key to explain about fault block mountains. The stuck key is a horst or a block that has moved up relative to the adjacent depressed keys which are called grabens. India's mountains are geological varied. The Himalaya, the Satpura, and the Western Ghats, for example, have formed by very different processes. Mala has used clear language and everyday familiar examples to simplify explanations of their origins. 

But this book is much more than about geology. Forests, wildlife, and human communities living in these rugged provinces really are the heart of the book. There are evocative descriptions of the animal and plant life of the different mountains ranges. Tibetan gazelles and mysterious snow leopards of the Himalaya, hoolock gibbons of the northeastern hills, majestic tigers of the Satpura and the Aravalli, and the bewildering varieties of frogs and reptiles of the Western Ghats, make us proud of our magnificent wildlife. There are lovely photographs scattered through the book. I could not stop gazing at the clouded leopard sitting elegantly on a branch deep in forests of the Mizo Hills. 

People too have lived in these mountains and forests since times immemorial. Their lives and life practices are being threatened as more mountain and forest land is gobbled up for dams, mines and expanding townships. In the northern Aravallis, villagers fought for years to save the sacred grove of Mangar Bani. In the Nallamali hills of Andhra Pradesh, members of the Chenchu tribe along with other organizations protested uranium mining that would have transgressed on the Amrabad Tiger Reserve. The book tells many stories from across the country, from the Aravallis, to the Eastern Ghats, to the Himalaya, of people struggling to conserve forests and water sources. 

Sketches and insets provide a welcome addition to the text. There are fun stories about the people of the mountains, about their crafts, about intrepid explorers, along with short quizzes, crammed in the insets that make the mountains come alive. 

Mountain ranges form the most important watersheds of our big rivers. Today, rampant development of mountain slopes coupled with climate change are becoming big threats to our water security. Mala Kumar's urgent call for conservation and sustainable development emerges again and again throughout the book and she has chosen her audience well. Whom better to inculcate a love and awareness for nature than in our children. These young citizens will be living in an increasingly challenging world and the hope of changing it for the better lies in a deeper understanding of how nature works. 

Go out for a trek in the mountains. Keep a lookout for that bright bluetail, and that curious langur who is peering at you half hidden from behind the thick leaves. Pick up pebbles from the stream bed and ask yourself about its geological secrets. Take a mountain train to the scented Nilgiri heights.  If you are hesitating, this book is an ideal place to begin.

Up the Mountains of India: A Fun, Fact-Filled Trek across the Country's Major Ranges - Mala Kumar.