Marginlands

‘Marginlands is a tour de force, a magnificent first book about India’s marginalized landscapes and inhabitants (human and more-than-human), which takes its readers from the high Himalayas to the Sundarban delta, from the deserts of the Thar to the climate-change-ravaged Keralan coastline and beyond. Born of hard, committed, long-term first-hand witnessing of places and people, it is written with compassion, compressed elegance of observation, and urgent political force. Kumar-Rao’s book joins new voices, including Yuvan Aves (Intertidal) and Neha Sinha (Wild and Wilful), proving that a powerful, hopeful resurgence of Indian nature writing is happening right now’

Robert Macfarlane, author of Mountains of the Mind and Underland

‘Arati Kumar-Rao writes with grace and empathy about traditional forms of resilience and how they help ordinary people survive, and even flourish, in the most demanding environments – and about the often devastating impacts of clumsy interventions by the state. This is some of the best environmental writing I have read in a long time’

Amitav Ghosh, author of The Hungry Tide and Gun Island

‘From startling images and evocative prose to brilliant sketches, what a glittering array of tools Arati Kumar-Rao has in her quiver! She is going to make a lot of people exceedingly envious’

Pradip Krishen, naturalist, filmmaker and author of Trees of Delhi

‘Our grandchildren will be reading Arati Kumar-Rao to understand the momentous decisions that our generation faced – and, shamefully, more often than not shirked – in valuing and safeguarding the last dazzling but imperilled ecological riches of the Indian subcontinent. Luminously written with slashing honesty and profound empathy, Kumar-Rao gifts us with a traveller’s haunting account of the vast stakes involved in India’s environmental emergencies, as well as moving homages to the keepers of traditional systems of knowledge who, if we only listened to them as carefully as she does, could help rescue what remains’

Paul Salopek, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and writer

‘Arati Kumar-Rao has written a book from the heart, infused with her poetic voice and humanistic soul, on topics she has explored for many years. Drawing on her multiple talents of writing, photography and sketching, Kumar-Rao has documented pressing issues affecting India while making much deeper connections with the relationship of humans to their resources, lands, and the wildlife they must coexist with. A monumental lesson for all of humanity to pay attention to so that we might redirect our course to a better, more sustainable future, this book is a work for the ages’

Ed Kashi, photojournalist, filmmaker and educator

‘Arati Kumar Rao’s timely book comes as a warning in a world that’s riddled with too many difficulties. Richly intense writing ... A marvellous treatise on life on the margins, on cultures on the brink and on the disappearance awaiting ecosystems. It is a lesson and, at the same time, a heartfelt tribute to India’s diverse ecology. Marginlands is a work that makes you despair as well as hope’

Rahul Singh, Deccan Herald

‘In chapter after chapter, (Kumar-Rao) tells poignant stories of loss, including those that can’t be quantified ... Through her meticulous research and impassioned storytelling, she unveils the multifaceted challenges faced by local communities, wildlife and ecosystems on the brink of irrevocable change. (Her) eloquent prose breathes life into the pages ... the fragility of these regions becomes palpable, igniting a sense of urgency to protect what remains. (Marginlands) is yet another reminder that the fate of our environment is intricately braided with our own’

Nawaid Anjum, Federal

‘A few pages into the book, I realized that if Kumar-Rao’s pictures are a brush-stroke, words are definitely her sword. She writes with searing clarity, weaving strands of history, prose, and science together into a compelling narrative. Marginlands does not weep; it shares the wisdom of ancient people and mixes their native language into the main story ... and in doing so, offers us a front-seat view of the subtle yet tectonic changes taking place in ecosystems across the country ... I would urge you to read this book. This is bold writing’

Bahar Dutt, Frontline

‘Captures the tumultuous lives – both human and non-human – of those who inhabit the margins of the subcontinent’

Divya Gandhi, Hindu

‘One of (the) finest chroniclers of (our) land’

Sonya Dutta Choudhury, Hindustan Times

‘Kumar-Rao maps expansively, and probes intensively, a precisely balanced and highly fragile ecosystem and the people who have lived with it’

Latha Anantharaman, India Today

‘Arati Kumar-Rao uses the skills in her toolbox to document the country’s vulnerable landscapes, ecosystems and populations’

Sucheta Chakraborty, Mid-day

‘These are stories that remind us of what we could save if we listened to the world around us a bit more ... One of the most active voices in the environmental storytelling space in India, in Marginlands Kumar-Rao goes deeper to understand these marginalized landscapes through the people who live there’

Nitin Sreedhar, Mint Lounge

‘Timely ... Arati Kumar-Rao documents first-hand accounts of apathy toward the environment and how it is affecting lives on the fringes of our country’

Shail Desai, Moneycontrol

‘Thought-provoking … Marginlands is among the most timely non-fictions to have released (in 2023)’

Mayank Jain Parichha, New Indian Express

‘Exemplary ... Kumar-Rao evocatively tells us the stories of the wasted landscapes of our country and of the unforgivable official neglect of traditional wisdom and knowledge systems, which sustained the people living here .... The writing is riveting ... This book needs to be mandatory reading for all the planning mandarins who ought to get out of their offices and do the kind of fieldwork Kumar-Rao has done, before launching their grandiose projects’

Ranjit Lal, Open

‘Kumar-Rao’s commitment to spotlighting the stories of people affected by decisions taken far away from their reality is reflected in her words, images and illustrations ... The book has the lucidity of fiction and the factual punches of non-fiction ... It’s like she has created a time capsule, documenting practices that have been handed down over generations, which help people live in harmony with the land, or of people who have lost and lived with the vagaries of nature and human decisions. For anyone concerned with the environment, the lives of people, and the often convoluted business of coexistence in times of polycrisis, the book is a must-read’

Shatakshi Gawade, Sanctuary Asia

‘(Arati Kumar-Rao) manages to tell human-centric stories … and captures what’s at the centre of any argument that’s made to save nature: that humans’ very existence relies on its preservation’

Saurabh Sharma, Scroll.in

‘There are very few storytellers who can let go of their comforts and immerse themselves in the harsh environments they talk about. Arati Kumar-Rao is one of them, which is why her work never fails to inform and astound ... What makes this book special is that it’s not an academic exercise on Indian landscapes. It is more about the lives, both human and wild, that are an intrinsic part of these ecosystems. Rao combines folklore, science, history, personal accounts and policy decisions to paint images through words that illuminate our understanding. It’s a book that lays bare the ecological wonders and human blunders of India’

Manu Moudgil, Tribune

‘A bold narration’ –Shobha Sriram, Wire