"Ranging from prehistory to the present and encompassing the whole Asian subcontinent, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, South Asia: An Environmental History offers the first chronologically organized environmental history of a staggeringly complex region. By focusing on the crucial reciprocal relationship between South Asia's inhabitants and their environment, it explores the effect of humans on their surroundings, as well as the influence of nature on the evolution of South Asian cultures."--Jacket.