Green Lit Fest award winners announced

GLF is a response to the urgent need for literature that helps us comprehend our relationship with the planet, mend the broken bits, and find refuge and comfort amidst the climate crisis

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: The Green Literature Festival (GLF) has announced winners of India’s only award for environmental books in Bangalore. The award, in its second year, is given to the top three authors in business, children, adult fiction and non-fiction sections. The award carries a trophy, certificate and a cash prize of Rs. 50,000/- .

The awards were given away by Sudheesh Venkatesh, a Board Member at the Azim Premji University, during the Green Literature Festival’s first offline annual event at the Bangalore International Centre. The award for green books published in India follows a combination of popular ratings and critical reviews by a threemember jury in each category.

The certificates were printed on cotton rag paper and trophies were made of recycled wood. The diversity of the books honoured this year is yet another testament to the spectacular variety in environmental writing for readers of all age groups in India.

The children’s category has a beautifully illustrated picture book on resolving human-animal conflict - Bumoni’s Banana Trees, a comic book with an original take on biodiversity - Naturalist Ruddy, and a chapter book on climate-grief - Savi and the Memory Keeper.

 In the general fiction and non-fiction category there is a book of arresting poetry - Hunchprose, a moving account of drought - Landscapes of Loss and a magisterial work on the natural history of viruses - Invisible Empire.

Finally, books on the green business category are a book on the benefits of environmental, social, governance - ESG and Outlast, on solid waste management - Endlessly Green and on ways to answer the urgent need for water conservation - Watershed.In response to the announcement of the general fiction and non-fiction long list this year, Amitav Ghosh tweeted, ‘This is a great list.

Honoured to be on it.’ Ghosh’s book Gun Island won in the first edition of the GLF Honour Book Awards in 2021.