“National Geographic” Explorer Arati Kumar-Rao Explores a Global Crisis in “Marginlands — ”See the Cover! (Exclusive)

"I hope to shine light on and rekindle that vital awareness of a human-earth relationship," Kumar-Rao tells PEOPLE

Arati Kumar-Rao is ready to shed light on India's vanishing landscape with Marginlands: A Journey into India's Vanishing Landscapes.

The book, which Milkweed Editions will publish on Feb. 11, 2025, follows the National Geographic Explorer, writer and photographer's journey traveling through the country and speaking with its people. The author, who was named one of the BBC’s 100 Influential and Inspiring women from around the world in 2023 exclusively revealed its cover to PEOPLE.

"People know how to read the land and thus, survive through changes," says Kumar-Rao, in an exclusive statement shared with PEOPLE, of her inspiration for writing the book. "By writing Marginlands, I hope to shine light on and rekindle that vital awareness of a human-earth relationship which, if we can reclaim, may show us a path out of the crisis we find ourselves in."

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This book marks the India-based Kumar-Rao's first work published in the U.S. and seeks to address a series of questions. "What's eating up the coasts of Kerala in India? With glaciers gone, how will the Pashmina trade of Ladakh survive?" asks the author. "When tigers grab desperate fishermen in the largest mangrove forest in the world, how do their families survive? Dunes that hold water in their bellies ... can that even be true?"

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"Long years ago, I read an essay by Barry Lopez called 'American Geographies' where he speaks of how we Americans are increasingly disconnecting from our land and losing intimate knowledge of our local geographies essential to sustain and support life," she continues. "What I found was that that is not a uniquely American problem at all."

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The problem isn't limited to India, but it is especially evident there. "All over the modern world and especially in South Asia, a quest to frenetically 'develop' at any cost, jostles and bumps up against a world where a gentler land ethic with an elemental connection to the earth is still alive," the author adds.

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Marginlands: A Journey into India's Vanishing Landscapes will be released on Feb. 11, 2025, and is available for preorder now.

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