The Forest Beneath the Mountains

by Ankush Saikia

Shaken by the news of his mother’s death, a man leaves his job in Delhi and returns to Assam. Twenty-five years ago, his father, a forest officer here, was found shot dead in his jeep. With the passing of his mother, the man learns new and startling details of his father’s life, and trying to reclaim an entire life suddenly made unfamiliar, he starts digging into events from far back in time, visiting places where his father had served, in the foothills of the eastern Himalayas.

But the forests he had once roamed as a boy with his father and his band of hard drinking, rugged companions, have long disappeared. Settlers have moved in, and insurgents and security forces now prowl the area. Wandering what was once the Chariduar reserve forest, the man meets a kaleidoscopic cast of characters—people trying to find anchor in an uncertain world— some of whom are remnants of a rapidly disappearing past and some from the region’s turbulent present: foresters, elephant catchers, army contractors, insurgents, police commandos, drifters and double-dealers. As he gets closer to the truth about his father, he finds himself drawn into a local conflict, a world of shifting realities from which he will struggle to disentangle himself.

Wide, unhurried and immersive, The Forest Beneath the Mountains is a compelling blend of memory, family stories, ecology and history. It is a story of people and places at the margins of the Indian republic, and of the inevitable taming of wilderness by man.

Genres: India

328 pages, Paperback

Published March 1, 2021

About the author

Latest: "Rough Streets", set in 1980s Shillong, available as an e-book. Author of "Tears of the Dragon" (Speaking Tiger, February 2023), the fourth book in the Detective Arjun Arora series ("Dead Meat", 2015; "Remember Death", 2016; and "More Bodies Will Fall", 2018; all from Penguin Random House India), also the environmental novel "The Forest Beneath The Mountains" (Speaking Tiger, March 2021), the noir thriller "The Girl from Nongrim Hills" (Penguin India, 2013), the crime thriller "Red River, Blue Hills" (Westland Books, 2015), and "A Natural History of Violence", a crime novella set in Delhi (2024). I've worked as an editor in journalism and publishing in New Delhi for over a decade. Currently based in Shillong and Tezpur in North-East India.

twitter & instagram: @ankushsaikia

Reviews

[Karyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book over a period of two months as it was a very slow read.
The story is about Abhijit, who returns to his childhood home in Assam, where his grandmother lives.
He has travelled to find out answers about his father's death about 25 years ago, in suspicious circumstances.
As he tries to find his father's old friends from the forest offices, he realises there is a lot of conflict among locals and people who have settled from elsewhere.
The author has written about the past and present communities residing there, the police, and the forest department officials. He has tried to give the readers a glimpse of what's happening in the forest area. He talks about deforestation and the changing landscape around him.
Abhijit tries to remember his past as a child who accompanied his father as he encounters the people in the forest, searching for clues to his father's death.
There is a lot happening in between which kind of slows the pace and therefore I gave it a 3*.
I agree I don't know much about insurgents and encroachers, and the author has tried to explain but it was not for me.

[Chitra Iyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I Liked

The book is absolutely amazing! The sole reason is the author’s writing. He has a very descriptive style of putting thoughts into words. The summary mentions that the book is unhurried and it is exactly that. An unhurried account of Abhijit’s life that takes you on a journey to the forests and surroundings of Assam.

The writing is sublime, I cannot stress upon that more. One can capture the beauty of the exotic locales and the seriousness of the situations in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh through the vivid painting of words.

The story is about Abhijit’s quest to find what happened with his father that takes him back to his hometown in Assam. But in my opinion, it its more about the violence and infringement happening there which, sadly, is nothing but the truth. It is sad that the beauty and the resources of our country are being exploited beyond measure, especially for monetary reasons.

You may want to take time reading this book to enjoy it to the fullest, as I did.

What I Did Not Like

Although I found the writing style to be excellent, it might be lengthy for some readers out there.

Would I Recommend It?

Yes, of course. A treat for nature lovers and the punctilious among us.

[Aparajita · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book resonated deeply with me. Ankush Saikia's lovely book with an evocative and apt title – ‘The Forest Beneath the Mountains’ conveys a sense of doom and has a melancholy tone throughout, a sense of sadness and loss. Both for the protagonist (Abhijit) personally and in the backdrop of the story about the deforestation that occurred in the north bank landscape. Although written as fiction, the book is partly autobiographical and set in Sonitpur district of Assam on the north bank of the Brahmaputra in the foothills and what happened there. It is set in the reality of that time, the tumultuous happenings, the insurgency, the disappearance of the forests there. But while one can feel the deep emotions and pain of the protagonist/writer, the story is told dispassionately, not with overtly expressed emotions. And that works. The language is sparse, lyrical and easy and effective. I also identify with it so much because it talks about a familiar landscape and world. The places - Foothills, Kamengbari, Doimara, Chariduar, Balipara - near the borders of Arunachal-Assam, places irrevocably altered by the deforestation that happened there in the nineties. To me, deeply personal too, because it brings back the memories of what I have seen/experienced in that landscape for 25-30 years. But the book/story is more universal and applies to what is happening in many places and not just this area. Amidst the story of that larger loss, is also set the protagonist's personal loss and search for the truth about his father's death. There are some beautiful passages in the book when the author is lamenting the loss of the forests and the changes that people bring when they modify a landscape. There is also a deep empathy and understanding of the people, the conflicts and tensions - and all that big stuff is conveyed unhurriedly, in a gentle way, understated but deeply felt. As I read the book, I wanted to mark some bits as I wanted to come back to them, re-read and remember again. As a biologist, it also resonated as in many places the book refers to the hornbills or some other wildlife and familiar trees and plants from the North-east forests. I also learnt much that I did not know that well or fully on how and why that deforestation happened. It is a book that I also plan to buy and gift to several friends who would love and appreciate it, being familiar with that landscape. It also made me smile as there's a passage that mentions my friend and colleague Rana (Anindya Sinha) and his late father, the film director Tapan Sinha. The book cover is super gorgeous with the Great hornbills beautifully illustrated along with leaves and splashes of green. The book cover is super gorgeous with the Great hornbills beautifully illustrated along with leaves and splashes of green.

[Divya · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully crafted story of the intertwined complex that is history, humans, forests, politics, loss and life. Written wonderfully by someone from the region, rare and precious in a world with piles of books written by 'outsiders'.

[Smriti · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is a slow burn, with rich narratives and forgotten tales of the North-East and its fast disintegrating ecology. Abhijit's character, and his personal experiences, are a useful medium to explore the larger themes of the book - deforestation, man's unending conflict with nature and the post-independence politics of it. The mysterious death of his father serves an allegory for the rapid disappearance of vast forests, and harmonious ways of life, in the foothills of Abhijit's childhood.

However it can get slightly tedious to get through certain parts of the book, especially given the author's descriptive style of writing and the prolonged sense of despair which the reader gets little respite from.

[Ankit Mohonto · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me a while to complete Ankush Saikia's The Forest Beneath the Mountains. But as i devoured each and every detail witnessed by our protagonist 'Abhijeet' in his quest to find the truth about his long deceased father I slowly experienced myself deep diving into his journey and considering it my own in a way. The subtle juxtaposition of the many complex issues of the region mentioned in the book are commendable. While the reader is initially hooked by the Abhijeet's personal quest, the grave issues of deforestation and blatant corruption in a man eat man world cannot be ignored. From a personal point of view, having lost my mother at a young age I could relate to Abhijeet's 'Osthirota' at wanting to know more about his parents' life and about this subtle emotional baggage he constantly carried wherever he went. Ankush Saikia has beautifully crafted this complex and nuanced journey of life and the complexities associated with the Northeast regions of India and in a way documented a life which has been restricted to the past. I hope this is the beginning of a long line of serious works coming out from this region from its own people.