National Geographic Explorer Arati Kumar-Rao Explores a Global Crisis in Marginlands — See the Cover! (Exclusive)

Arati Kumar-Rao is all set to shed light on India’s disappearing landscape Marginlands: A Journey into India’s Vanishing Landscapes.

The book, to be published by Milkweed Editions on February 11, 2025, follows National Geographic The journey of a researcher, writer and photographer who travels the country and talks to its people. The author, who has been named one of the BBC’s 100 most influential and inspiring women from around the world in 2023, exclusively revealed the cover to PEOPLE.

“People know how to read the earth and thus survive through change,” says Kumar-Rao, in an exclusive statement shared with PEOPLE, about her inspiration for writing the book. “By writing MarginlandsI hope to illuminate and rekindle that vital awareness of the relationship between man and earth which, if we manage to return, could show us the way out of the crisis we are in.”

Marginlands: A Journey into India’s Vanishing Landscapes by Arati Kumar-Rao.

Pan Macmillan India

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This book marks Kumar-Rao’s first work from India published in the US and seeks to answer a number of questions. “What’s Eating the Shores of Kerala, India? With Glaciers Disappearing, How Will Ladakh’s Pashmina Trade Survive?” the author asks. “When tigers grab desperate fishermen in the world’s largest mangrove forest, how do their families survive? The dunes that keep water in their bellies… can it even be true?”

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“Many years ago, I read an essay by Barry Lopez called ‘American Geographies,’ in which he talks about how we Americans are becoming increasingly disconnected from our country and losing the intimate knowledge of our local geographies that are critical to sustaining and sustaining life,” she continues. she. “I’ve found that it’s not an exclusively American problem at all.”

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Headshot by Arati Kumar-Rao.

Courtesy of Arati Kumar-Rao

The problem is not limited to India, but is particularly pronounced there. “In the entire modern world, and especially in South Asia, the desire for frenetic ‘development’ at any cost pushes and collides with a world where a gentler terrestrial ethic with an elemental connection to the earth is still alive,” adds the author.

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Marginlands: A Journey into India’s Vanishing Landscapes will be released on February 11, 2025 and is available for pre-order now.

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Source: HIS Education