Trees are great storytellers and living historians of place. By paying attention to trees, you can begin to hear the stories they tell, the histories they document, and the places they describe. They shape their surroundings even as they themselves are shaped by their environment. India has long been a land of remarkable trees—known for their elegant or majestic presence, colourful or verdant foliage, attractive or fragrant flowers, and their panoplies of fruit.
The set of fifty native species in this book, representing India’s rich tapestry of tree species, takes readers on an extraordinary journey spanning the subcontinent, through varied landscapes and lives. Building on the foundations of knowledge established by botany and taxonomy, this book unravels the intricacies of ecology and natural history of trees to appreciate their connections to the places they inhabit, to other species, and to people. It traces how changes in the world wrought by people influence trees and ultimately the people themselves.
The Trees of My Country is a celebration of the trees of India—from the mundane to the magnificent—through evocative word-portraits and beautiful botanical art. Stimulating wonder, this eloquent call to arms both informs and impels us to act on behalf of trees, recognizing them as living beings whose lives and futures are entangled with our own.
T. R. Shankar Raman likes to imagine he’s a writer turned wildlife scientist turned writer. His writing, emerging from close observations over the years and field experiences across India, evokes new and immersive perceptions of nature. His earlier books include a collection of his essays, The Wild Heart of India: Nature and Conservation in the City, the Country, and the Wild and Pillars of Life: Magnificent Trees of the Western Ghats, co-authored with his partner Divya Mudappa. Together, as scientists of the Nature Conservation Foundation, they now lead a program to restore tropical rainforests based out of a field research station in the Anamalai Hills of the Western Ghats. They live with Sootypoo, their cat, in their home in the mountains, visited by mongooses and macaques. He blogs at ‘View from Elephant Hills’, available at https://shankarraman.in.
Manali Patil is an artist and freelance illustrator based in Sindhudurg, Maharashtra. She creates meticulously detailed illustrations of the natural world, hand-drawn and painted on paper in the watercolour medium. Her work mainly focuses on native flora and fauna, and she occasionally explores different subjects and styles. Her interests range from wildflowers, dry leaves, to tiny moths, and currently—all thanks to this book—she’s fascinated by trees in their landscapes; their rootedness, and connection to other beings. Her work was shortlisted for the Young Botanical Artist Competition, and was exhibited at The Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art, Kew Gardens, in 2023.
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