BOOKS

The volume complied under the rubric of people of the Himalayas: Ecology, Culture Development and Change is an ambitious geographic multidisciplinary study concerning the little or scantily explored mountain ranges of Himalayas. The book has six major themes, which are the subject of 42 chapters. The study aims at having systmatic scientific knowledge of the conditions of the habitats, socio-cultural knowledge of the conditions of the habitats, socio-cultural development and change and their impact on the overall environmental situations presently obtaining in the sprawling 2,700 km long Himalayan ranges; extending from the south-east extreme of the Karakorams across Kashmir toAssam. The work covers the Himalayan highland as well as the lowland habitations including those in the plain catchment area in the north-east. Having taken a cursory glance at the Himalayan physiographic features, the study has noted that the age-old ever sustaining subsistence level of livelihood waned following the steady advent of urbanization and westernization among the Himalayan ranges since around the early twentieth century. The volume contains contributions from eminent scholars and researchers having direct first hand enthnographic study of the Himalayan habitations.