Indica

Pranay Lal 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. Write to Pranay at indica.deep.natural.history@gmail.com.

Did you know that the exquisite caves of Ellora were hewn from rock formed in the greatest lava floods the world has known-eruptions so enormous that they may well have obliterated dinosaurs? Or that Bengaluru owes its unique climate to a tectonic event that took place 88 million years ago? That the Ganga and Brahmaputra sequester nearly 20 per cent of global carbon, and their sediments over millions of years have etched submarine canyons in the Bay of Bengal that are larger than the Grand Canyon?Ever heard of Rajasaurus, an Indian dinosaur which was perhaps more ferocious than T rex? Many such amazing facts and discoveries-from 70-million-year-old crocodile eggs in Mumbai to the nesting ground of dinosaurs near Ahmedabad-are a part of Indica: A Deep Natural History of the Indian Subcontinent.
Researching across wide-ranging scientific disciplines and travelling with scientists all over the country, biochemist Pranay Lal has woven together the first compelling narrative of India's deep natural history filled with fierce reptiles, fantastic dinosaurs, gargantuan mammals and amazing plants. This story, which includes a rare collection of images, illustrations and maps, starts at the very beginning-from the time when a galactic swirl of dust coalesced to become our life-giving planet-and ends with the arrival of our ancestors on the banks of the Indus. Pranay Lal tells this story with verve, lucidity and an infectious enthusiasm that comes from his deep, abiding love of nature.
Indica won the award for the best non-fiction debut award at the Tata Lit Fest in Mumbai in 2017, the best book award at the Delhi Book Fair 2017, and was named among the top 10 memorable books of the year by Amazon and The Hindu's non-fiction list of 2017

What Lal has done is to take us on a journey of a lifetime and it is a journey few others have taken us on. This book is truly his labour of loveIndica opens up a new view of our subcontinent, one that we must protect and cherishOur planet has an eventful past, and in writing its natural history in Indica, Pranay Lal zooms in on the Indian subcontinentGeography lessons would have been fun had they been designed in the manner of this lucid and accessible history of the landmass of South AsiaWritten with all the tension of a suspense novel and the lyrical prose of a nature lover, Indica, is better than any sci-fi novel because the events are so extreme, the cast of characters so outlandish but the story so trueA spectacular new book brings alive the natural history of the Indian subcontinentEloquently written and profusely illustrated, the book offers a multi-disciplinary narrative on India's complex natural history. The enthusiasm with which the author has shared his two decades of tireless pursuit makes a lay person connect with it as easily as a more discerning reader. The easy-to-read text offers a lucid and accessible account of the science of evolution, as insightful as it is gripping