A naturalist's discovery of India

Alter does quite a remarkable exploration in book. He demonstrates the massive entwined entanglement between history of India, of its people, customs, rituals, geography and geology with environment

The Cobra’s Gaze: Exploring India’s Wild Heritage

Author: Stephen Alter

Publisher: Aleph

Price: Rs 999   

Pages: 361

This exploration of India’s wild heritage by author, academic and naturalist Stephen Alter is not a journey through the country’s few remaining wild areas. It is not a chronicling of India’s animals, birds, fish and plants. It is not about ecology, environment, conservation or conflict. Rather, it is all of those things and much more.

In the last few pages of the book, reproduced on the back cover, Alter writes, “Wildness can be a state of mind. Over the past two years I have travelled thousands of kilometres