There are many children today who feel keenly about the environment and wish to protect it. They study about the climate crisis in school. They hear about it on the news, read about it in books and they want to know more about these threats. Apart from helping you raise eco-warriors, books with green themes are great pieces of literature in themselves. They encourage empathy and use language to evoke deep personal connections with nature. They talk about pollution, river geography and deforestation. They also have brilliant illustrations and photographs. We hear of children's books like Greta and the Giants and Waiting for Ice but what about Indian books that talk about biodiversity? Here is a beginner's guide.
Lai Lai the Baby Elephant: A herpetologist and a wildlife filmmaker who pioneered conservation filmmaking in India, Shekar Dattatri authored three of my daughter's favourite books about the environment. Lai Lai the Baby Elephant chronicles the life of a baby elephant named Lai Lai, who loves to play in the water and roams the forests of South India with his protective mother and his aunts. Stunning photographs show us Lai Lai's life as well as his home being torn apart by deforestation. This is a bilingual book and a powerful way to learn a new language.
Ira the Little Dolphin: Another gem from Dattatri is Ira the Little Dolphin, a book about Ira, an Irrawady dolphin who lives in the beautiful Chilika Lake in Odisha. Children will love the delightful photographs of Ira with her round head and snub nose. Photographs are a great way to get children to understand a story visually and Dattatri's photos really tell stories of their own and captivate young minds.
Riddle of the Ridley: Dattatri's book is about the Olive Ridley sea turtles that arrive on the beaches of Odisha for their annual mass nesting and the many threats they face from harmful fishing activities and urban development.
10 Indian Animals You May Never See Again in the Wild: Did you know about India's rarest animals? Some of them became extinct, while a few others narrowly escaped extinction and made epic comebacks. This book by Ranjit Lal tells us about animals like the rhino, the forest owlet, the gharial, the lion-tailed macaque, and of course, the famous blackbuck. Ranjit Lal is a famous children's writer who received the Zeiss WIdlife Conservation Award for 2019. For young adults who love stories about the environment, do check out Budgie, Bridge and Big Djinn, also by the same author!
Ma Ganga and the Razai Box: Written by Geeta Dharmarajan and illustrated by Sonali Biswas, this book is about young Yasho of the Hill People. She is keen to find a solution to the problem of the village's soil being eroded by the river. Awakened by Ganga's wrath, Yasho and her people find a way to solve the problem and save their village. The metaphor of Shiva's matted hair is a great way to combine mythology and environmental concerns.
Saving the Dalai Lama's Cranes: Written by Neeraj Vagholikar and illustrated by Niloufer Wadia, this is an unusual book about a young monk and his friends in Arunachal Pradesh who find that the black-necked crane's habitat is in danger. The book tells us how they prevent the construction of the dam, which could harm the area's biodiversity.
Khari Journeys Through Kachchh: Written by Sujatha Padmanabhan and Shruthi Ramakrishna and illustrated by Kalyani Ganapathy, this book was the result of a school project to create environment education material for schools in Kutch. This is the story of a Demoiselle Crane named Khari, who migrates every year from Central Asia to India. She gets abandoned by her family and on her journey back to find them, explores Kutch and its various habitats.
Tiger Boy: This book by Mitali Perkins, is about young Neel, a 10-year-old who lives in the Sundarbans. His parents want him to study and win a prestigious scholarship, but all he wants to do is to find the tiger cub who goes missing from the forest reserve. The book really gets into the head of a boy who cares deeply about the forest and its animals and who cannot rest until he finds the tiger cub who he believes is in danger of being poached and sold on the black market.
(Note: This is not an exhaustive list.)