In this lyrical exploration of life, loss and survival Meera Subramanian travels in search of ordinary people and microenterprises determined to revive India’s ravaged natural world: an engineer-turned farmer brings organic food to Indian plats; villages resuscitate a river run dry; cook stove designers persist on the quest for a smokeless fire, biologists bring vultures back from the brink of extinction, and in Bihar, one of India’s most impoverished states, a bold young woman teaches adolescents the fundamentals of sexual health. While investigating these five environmental challenges, Subramanian discovers the stories that renew hope for a nation with the potential to lead India and the planet into a sustainable and prosperous future.

Subject to violent swings in climate, with a government unable or unwilling to face the most vital challenges, the rich and poor increasingly living in worlds apart; for most of the world, this picture is of a possible future. For India, it is very real present.

Villagers revive a dead river. Well-intentioned cook stove designers persist on a quest for a smokeless fire. Biologists bring vultures back form the brink of extinction. Subramanian discovers renewed hope for a sustainable and prosperous future for India.

A River Runs Again: India’s Natural World in Crisis, from the Barren Cliffs of Rajasthan to the farmlands of Karnataka by Meera Subramanian, Public Affairs, £15.99/ $17.29, 352 pages.