Indica

Title: Indica – A Deep Natural History of the Indian Subcontinent

Author: Pranay Lal

Publisher: Allen Lane, 2016 (First)

ISBN: 9788184007572

Pages: 468

We have come across many ‘histories’ of India. Some will cover the British period, some would include the Mughals too and a few might cover everything from the Indus civilization. Beyond a few centuries, such narratives are constrained in scope by current political boundaries. Any meaningful exposition of the story of India prior to 1947 must include those events occurred within the present frontiers of Pakistan to be of relevance and objectivity. Natural history, on the other hand, quite freely does away with political boundaries conjured up in the twentieth century. The origin and development of the flora and fauna, of continents, mountain ranges and geography in general is a truly global study. With this in the background, I was a little surprised at the boldness in the book’s subtitle ‘a deep natural history of the Indian subcontinent’. Anyhow, this book turned out to be an informatively extravagant affair in which India acts as the pivot of the narrative. It does not mean that India was something special or different from others. Going by the author’s scientific outlook, the converse is vindicated in this book, that is, India was just like any other landmass across the globe and it was pure chance that lifeforms emerged and evolved here, just like anywhere in the world. Whatever little speciality it can claim is the speed – in geological terms – with which it shot through the ocean and hit the Eurasian landmass to make the Himalayas. Pranay Lal begins the story at the beginning of it all. He addresses the question of how the earth came into being and how rocks, continents and lifeforms emerged. Each topic is made richer by recounting examples from India. In that sense, this book is a great motivator for people who want to travel and explore the country. The author is a biochemist and an artist who works in public health and environment. He has extensive publications in the areas of public health, global trade, ecology and mysterious fevers.

As noted above, the book is dedicated to India. It points out examples and comparisons of the theories that explain geographical and biological concepts. The Pranhita-Godavari Valley is truly remarkable for it holds within it the entire spectrum of vertebrates from primitive fish and early amphibians to the first dinosaurs and early mammals. Even hand tools made by early humans have been discovered here. The author brings in objects and ideas familiar to Indian readers to express notions of natural science. The early lungfish that stepped on land is said to have grown to the size of a scooter or an auto-rickshaw. The comparison of the physical dimensions of a creature to the two most popular kinds of vehicles prevalent in India sets the tone of the discussion. It lists out the remnant fossils of sea life and creatures found in the Himalayas and Rajasthan and the strange tectonic events that has the immense power to elevate an ocean floor to a continent or transform a dried-up lake to a plateau.

Travellers to Hampi in Karnataka are captivated by the strange assortment of all types of volcanic rocks found in large quantities there. Boulders are found at other places in the Deccan too. Lal discloses the profound events that caused this massive upheaval. Around 68 million years ago, one of the most massive volcanic eruptions occurred in the Indian Ocean and continued for four million years. This happened near the present location of the Reunion Islands and just when the Indian subcontinent was moving above the spot on its onward journey to collide with Asia. This had a huge role in shaping the landscape and life in Greater India. There was a series of eruptions and the second one lasted a million years and produced nearly eighty per cent of all the lava released. It decimated almost all large animals on land, most large reptiles and many fish in the seas. Noxious gases cut off sun's rays and aggravated extinction on a planetary scale. Here, the author follows a slightly different argument than the established repertoire by hinting that this event had caused the extinction of dinosaurs in the world. He accepts that ‘a 5 to 15 km-sized meteor struck the earth at Chicxulub in the Gulf of Mexico close on the heels of the second eruption’. But the meteor impact is given only secondary importance. The Deccan eruptions were the greatest lava floods in earth’s history. The exposed lava flow in India covers an astounding area of 500,000 sq.km (roughly the size of Spain). It is only natural to expect that such a cataclysmic event will engender persistent acid rain and change of climate which would spell doom for the big animals.

This book is a general history of the world till the time the earliest Homo sapiens arrived in India on their exodus from Africa. It identifies three triggers that catalyzed the evolution of ape-like ancestors into full-fledged hominins. They are the ability to walk on two legs; a constantly growing brain and intelligence which led them to make tools, tame fire and cook meat. Homo erectus was the most prolific ancestor of humans, but very few fossils of them have been found so far in India and no complete skeleton has been found anywhere in the world. It is interesting to note that the largest ape ever walked on earth and which is supposed to have lived between 9 million and 120,000 years ago, was a ‘native’ of India. This giant ape is named Gigantopithecus bilaspurensis, as its fossil was found from Bilaspur in Himachal Pradesh. It used to have a height of three meters and though believed to have gone extinct 120,000 years ago, is there any chance that a few of them might still be alive and form the basis of the legend of yati, a large snowman believed by some to live in the inaccessible Himalayan mountains? The author, however, does not mention this probably because even the slightest reference to yati may take away the sheen of scientific rigour from the book. This book gives an ingenious tip to measure variations in carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere by counting the stomata in leaves collected over a number of years. This is very helpful for aficionados and is delightfully simple.

Pranay Lal claims that this book is the culmination of over twenty years of research, travel, conversations, interviews and a lifetime awe of nature. Every page in the book attests to this proclamation. It has the ordinary reader in mind when it explains the way in which scientific names are coined. The parts in the nomenclature are split and the Greek words elucidated. For example, the ape named Shivapithecus has the first part of its name ‘Shiva’ derived from Sivalik Hills which was its habitat and ‘pithecus’ means ape. The copy I had read was a hardback with very fine quality pages and excellent colour photographs lavishly thrown in. Naturally, this makes the book somewhat heavy. Indica is a book which is a must-have for all science enthusiasts who also love India.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 4 Star