India has endured a century of clouds heavy with acid rain, and rivers so thick with industrial effluent that they catch fire. Pollutants from toxic pesticides seep through the rich soils of rural Punjab, where a “Cancer Train” shuttles droves of farmers sick with chemical poisoning to oncology centers in foreign states. Sixty percent of the population lives without access to potable water. India’s ecosystem is on a precipice.In Elemental India, Meera Subramanian explores this environmental catastrophe through the five elements that make the building blocks of life—earth, water, fire, air, and ether. Her journey through this country home to 17.5% of the world’s population, and over two thousand ethnic groups, is hopeful. She reveals the modest triumphs of ordinary men and women who struggle to preserve India’s crumbling environment. Kanhaiya has spent the twenty-five years in semi-arid Rajasthan, helping villagers revive rainwater-harvesting practices and resuscitate their land from pervasive drought; Vibhu was the first to notice a baffling and dramatic decline in India’s vulture population in the 1990s and has since devoted his life to rescuing the species from extinction; Pinki Kumari campaigns against over-population and poverty by teaching young adolescents the fundamentals of sexual health in Bihar, a region in the north of India with one of the nation’s highest fertility rates and a notorious reputation for violence.In these stories, Subramanian looks for answers—for a country smothering under cloud of smog so vast that it is visible from outer space; for a country that is now the world’s clearest example of environmental catastrophe. Elemental India beautifully and memorably captures the conflict between humanity and its natural world.