‘Our Potpourri Planet’ by Ranjit Lal: What’s right, wrong with planet

‘Our Potpourri Planet’ is an educative book about two important planetary crises: the decline and extinction of species, and climate change. The book is divided into three parts: the first inspires the reader by describing the natural wonders of our planet; the second diagnoses what is wrong with it; and the third implores the reader to do something about it.

The book is encyclopaedic in nature. Every chapter is rich in numbers and statistics. The broad narrative starts with the amazing world of plants and seamlessly moves through the world of insects, frogs, crocodiles, and snakes before we take a brief dive into the oceans and look at fascinating sea creatures, from sponges to corals to fishes to octopuses. Finally, the book takes off to the skies to describe the world of the birds.

After describing the beauty of our planet, the book notes what is wrong with it. It begins with the problem of defining a forest and presents the famous court case of Godavarman vs Union of India and some of the challenges in legally protecting the forest that can be traced back to pre-Independence times. The narrative then moves to mass extinction and the challenges posed by modern development and big infrastructure projects. Finally, the narrative takes on the elephant in the room: “carbon emission”. This section explores the challenges of nature conservation.

The book is beautifully illustrated for aesthetics and effects. The colourful illustrations compliment the narrative. Many are worth framing.

As a reader, I meandered with this river of information, and at times, I wondered about the target audience of this book. The design and narration are clearly not meant for an adult. The illustrations, glossy paper, and pedagogical language are clearly aimed at younger readers, but some of the cultural references, like comparing the mating behaviour of bullfrogs to the Woodstock fair, cannot be understood by most people born after the 1990s. The description of the Arribada of the Olive Ridley turtles is one of the best that I have read, especially when it comes to explaining it to children.

And yet, I did not feel confident in handing it over to my 10-year-old daughter (which I eventually did anyway) because it has cliches and innuendoes that are not suitable for someone that young. Instances such as “Spiders are usually not a girl’s best friend” reinforce stereotyping, or the section on praying mantis goes into details of how the female eats the male while copulating, only to conclude in one sentence that recent research suggests that this may be incorrect. The Godavarman case or carbon markets are of little interest to young ones.

Yet, I found scribbled notes from my daughter saying she liked that the writer had explained difficult words like Photons and Cyanobacteria.

The book will interest young adults with a pre-interest in nature, conservation and planetary well-being. There is no storyline or characters in the book, and the deluge of facts borders on a geeky conversation. Those who love nature will cherish the book, but it may not be the gospel that will bring new converts to the cathedrals of nature conservation.

The concluding part preaches to the reader about what they should do to help ‘Mother Nature’, giving examples of environmental champions like Greta Thunberg, Jane Goodall, Salim Ali, Kailash Sankhala, Sonam Wangchuk and a few others. All of them have fought for political action to protect species and the environment, but the book focuses on the small things that each reader can do.

There is a deep conversation about not wasting food while eating at restaurants. It is done in good spirit, but the book misses the opportunity to put the responsibility where it belongs: in political (in)action. Being mindful and not over-ordering at restaurants is not going to prevent the extinction crisis or the climate from changing. It needs collective action in the form of global policy change on the use of fossil fuels. The book teaches the readers to be mindful of their own impacts on nature, but does not encourage them to demand action from those responsible or those in power.

— The writer is director of the India Programme of Snow Leopard Trust

Book Review