With the increasing importance of study and research on nature, it is the demand of the time to present these in a popular form and take them to the people for the sake of nature conservation.
However, there are only a handful of books on nature studies and research presented in such a popular form in the Assamese language. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the importance of these issues.
We notice some important features in Ananya Aranya (Unique Forest), a new book in Assamese written by Girimallika Saikia, compared with the existing books on environment, nature and wildlife. It is generally seen that concrete data and information are properly not presented in Assamese books on the environment. In addition, the complex scientific content of many books and essays is often difficult to understand without being an expert.
The author has kept this in mind when writing Ananya Aranya and has beautifully arranged the book with accurate references and used the latest research as much as possible throughout the book.
Ananya Aranya is likely to be a valuable account of nature literature written in the Assamese language.
Starting from Madhava Kandali’s Description of Chitrakut to the collection of works by Soumya Dutta, almost all the literature on environment and nature available in the Assamese language is comprehensively discussed in this book.
Ananaya Aranya contains 37 essays and each is unique, but on closer inspection, there is a deep relationship with one other.
The book mainly addresses the biodiversity of Assam and the North East, but some of the works cross the borders of India too.
The most important thing is that the book highlights nature and biodiversity conservation traditions that each ethnic group has developed. We have seen that this aspect has not been highlighted much in the scientific literature so far.
This book takes a pioneering role in this regard by discussing local traditions related to the environment and climate. The folklore about monitor lizards, beliefs and conservation traditions about tortoises, our traditional Senchuwa (observer of Shaheen falcon) custom, practices about the Kadam tree (Neolamarckia cadamba) etc. are discussed in detail. Moreover, how such traditions can help in conservation is researched in depth.
Some of the articles are so poetic and full of human feelings that it is difficult to distinguish these popular science writings from creative literature. Although the book is based on collected data as a whole, the author’s personal experiences and observations also give the book its originality. There is also room for new research based on the essay Like the Cultural Evolution of Monkeys.
One of the prime features of Ananya Aranya is that it provides acceptable solutions to the problems as they are presented. Reputed publishing house Aak Bak has published the book.
Book: Ananya Aranya; Author: Girimallika Saikia; Publisher: Aak Bak; Pages: 224; Price: Rs 299
