Cradles of Biodiversity- NWfC Feature

“...Here, in the tide country, transformation is the rule of life: rivers stray from week to week, and islands are made and unmade in days.” These lines from Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide capture the transience and truth of wetlands that wear different hues and take different forms — mangrove forests, tidal pools, floodplains, estuaries, marshes, swamps and more. Children’s literature in India portrays these shape-shifting landscapes through vivid narratives encapsulating everything from the mythical to the ecological.

Traditional Tales

A place said to be protected by deities and guardians, wetlands in India have a reverent, yet complex and intriguing place in tradition and communities. Bon Bibi of the Sundarbans is an iconic example of a guardian goddess. Woodcutters, honey collectors, fisherfolk and foragers of Hindu and Islamic faith offer their prayers to the deity before entering the forest — for they fear an attack by Dokkhin Rai, the resident monster who transforms into a tiger. As with oral folklore, the stories of Bon Bibi and Dokkhin Rai are wide-ranging. Sandhya Rao and Proiti Roy capture this in their picture book In Bon Bibi’s Forest, which underlines what it means to ‘take only what you need’ from the forest. Rao’s writing is a reminder of how ecological balance rests on the volatile surface of human need and greed. Mitali Perkins extends this in her middle-grade novel Tiger Boy, where his quest to find a lost tiger cub brings the protagonist Neel face to face with the dark underbelly of wildlife poaching in the Sundarbans. His moral dilemmas are complex and consuming — a metaphorical take on his island village.

Creature Features

Wetlands host myriads of species and several books zoom into the wild wonder of these thriving ecosystems. Vaishnavi Giri and Pallavi Jain’s picture book Paro of the Sundarbans takes young readers deep inside a mangrove forest, where a little mudskipper — the eponymous Paro — is flapping her pectoral fins as she attempts to find her way back home to the mudflats. Along the way, she encounters a variety of creatures, both friends and foes, who nudge her along. Award-winning wildlife filmmaker Shekar Dattatri’s books Ira the Little Dolphin and Riddle of the Ridley pay homage to two vulnerable species — Irrawaddy dolphins and Olive Ridley turtles — through captivating photographs. Run Ranga! Run! by Geeta Dharmarajan and Srivi tells the story of a rhino growing up in the Kaziranga National Park — a unique wetland ecosystem situated on the floodplains of the mighty Brahmaputra.

In Ten Indian Animals You May Never Again See in the Wild, Ranjit Lal presents a case for the gharial — a prehistoric river beast, known to have existed from the days of the dinosaurs! Gharials, as the author notes, have ‘site fidelity’ — making it imperative for them to revisit the same nesting spot each time. Their habitats, unfortunately, wear the tell-tale signs of climate change and exploitation, and the creatures are labelled critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The plight of such creatures is also captured in Catch that Crocodile, where quirky illustrations by Pulak Biswas are paired with Anushka Ravishankar’s deft verse to narrate the story of a crocodile that strays onto dry land. Fear and chaos ensue until a clever solution is found by a wise woman.

Empathy and curiosity for the natural world form the crux of books by naturalist and educator Yuvan Aves. Growing up in schools on riverbanks sparked his insatiable interest in ecology, and wetlands in particular. In his seminal book Intertidal: A Coast and Marsh Diary, he talks about children’s ‘voracious capacity to wonder’ and his books for young readers shine a light on the intricate ecosystems that exist in these landscapes. In Saahi’s Quest, illustrated by Anusha Menon, Aves writes about Wandering Glider Dragonflies that ride on the monsoon winds and travel the world, connecting wetlands across the globe as they breed and migrate. Shorewalk is his tribute to the human and more-than-human life forms teeming in this dynamic ecosystem.

Wetlands offer food and shelter to many migratory birds during stopovers. Dhanauri wetlands in Uttar Pradesh, for instance, hosts over 217 species of birds, including the state bird — the Sarus crane. Seema and Anavi Mullick’s self-published book, The Call of the Sarus Crane, follows a pair of Sarus cranes through courtship and parenthood. These red-headed birds are also at the centre of Mahipal and Kanika Nair’s picture book One Summer Afternoon, where a gang of boys unwittingly trigger a tragic event for a family of Sarus cranes.

Flamingos make for an unforgettable sight at wetlands and it’s not surprising to find many books on this natural spectacle. Wing Commander Vijay Kumar Sethi’s stunning photographs foreground Anita Mani’s picture book The Dance of the Flamingo that highlights facts and trivia about these beautiful birds. Deepak Dalal’s A Flamingo in my Garden follows the capers of Sunglow, a flamingo residing in Mumbai’s creeks.

Conserving Wetlands

Early this year, India added its 89^th site to the Ramsar list — the definitive list of wetlands of international importance. At 89, our country has the highest number of wetlands in Asia. However, many of these sites are at high risk because of urban development plans — apartment complexes, road building projects and waste disposal sites — that have massively impacted the ecosystem. In Ashish Kothari and Anusha Menon’s picture book Shero to the Rescue, a hedgehog drums up support from animals to protest development activity around the wetlands and grasslands of Kachch. Kothari’s other book Wildlife in a City Pond, illustrated by Sangeetha Kadur, opens out the wonders that lie in our urban backyards.

In their piece ‘A Tale of Three Cities’ from the eclectic anthology Go Wild! (edited by Bijal Vachhrajani), Seema Mundoli and Harini Nagendra highlight the Kolkata wetlands, a 125-kilometre land parcel contributing to the city’s sewage treatment and agriculture. Despite this, like many wetlands around the country, they are branded ‘wastelands’, making them vulnerable to continuing degradation.

To emphasise the need to protect wetlands and the role of traditional knowledge systems in wetland management, Chennai-based organisation Care Earth Trust has put together a gorgeously illustrated book Home of the Blue Lily. Designed as a primer for students to learn about the intersection of nature and culture, the book tracks Chennai’s wetland history, offering glimpses of initiatives and events that shaped the city’s ecology.

Unless initiated, most urban children grow up oblivious to wetlands in their neighbourhood. It is in books that they get a glimpse of these extraordinary marvels of the natural world. In the interplay of text and art, there is a revitalising power to transform passivity to curiosity. We owe it to children to make books that entertain, educate and inspire. Much like our wetlands, our children’s literature too needs to be regenerative.

Bibliography

In Bon Bibi’s Forest (Tulika Books)
Tiger Boy (Westland)
Paro of the Sundarbans (Karadi Tales)
Ira the Little Dolphin (Tulika)
Riddle of the Ridley (Tulika)
Run Ranga! Run! (Katha)
Ten Indian Animals You Many Never Again See In The Wild ( Duckbill)
Catch that Crocodile (Tara Books)
Intertidal: A Coast and Marsh Diary (Bloomsbury)
Saahi’s Quest (Kalpavriksh)
Shorewalk (Tulika Books)
The Call of the Sarus Crane (self-published)
One Summer Afternoon (Pratham Books)
Dance of the Flamingo (Pratham Books)
A Flamingo in my Garden (Puffin)
Shero to the Rescue (Kalpavriksh)
Wildlife in a City Pond (Pratham Books)
Go Wild: Stories, Essays and Comics that Celebrate the Earth (Puffin)
Home of the Blue Lily (Care Earth Trust)
Green Humour for a Greying Planet (Penguin)
So You Want to Know About the Environment (Rupa)
Unearthed: An Environmental History of Independent India (Puffin)
Keoladeo Bird Sanctuary: The Kingdom of Birds (Mapin)
Chaos at Keoladeo (FunOkPlease/ Puffin)

*Cover Image: Wild Life in a City Pond by Pratham