A conversation with the journalist Thomas Bell on his latest book, ‘Human Nature’ , and the social, cultural and natural history of people’s lives in the Himalayan environment .

Welcome to the Southasia Review of Books Podcast, where we speak to celebrated authors and emerging literary voices from across Southasia. In this episode, Shwetha Srikanthan speaks to the journalist Thomas Bell about his new book, Human Nature: A Walking History of the Himalayan Landscape (Penguin India, September 2024). 

In his new book, Human Nature, Thomas Bells turns to the hills and mountains of the Himalaya to tell the story of how people create nature, and how nature makes us back. It’s based on four walks he made in recent years across the central Himalayan region of Nepal.

On the first walk, he explores different forms of migrations – some of which are ongoing today – but especially about the arrival of the first people into the hills. On the second walk, he takes a close look at settlement and agriculture, as well as the first encounters with Europeans in the region. He then ventures into a high mountain enclave and writes about the taming of that landscape and the impact of national parks, conservation efforts and environmental degradation in the Himalaya to uncover the many ways in which people explain their history in their landscape. 

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Youtube: https://youtu.be/pgTp1jolGew

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