Book Launch: ‘The Ghost of the Mountains’ by Kulbhushansingh Suryawanshi

Join us for a thoughtful discussion with Kulbhushansingh Suryawanshi, author of The Ghost in the Mountains, who will be in conversation with Harini Nagendra, author of Cities and Canopies: Trees in Indian Cities, reflecting on decades of fieldwork, community-based conservation, and the threats facing the fragile Himalayan ecosystem. This will be followed by an interactive Q&A with the audience.

Here are the details:

Date: 20th September 2026, Sunday

Time: 6:00 PM (seating begins at 5:45 PM)

Venue: Champaca Bookstore, Vasanth Nagar

RSVP here to register.

About the book: 

Snow leopards have a special grip on the human imagination, a symbol of the mysteries that still exist on our planet. These elusive predators live solitary lives in the highest reaches of the Himalaya, moving along rock faces like smoke. They are also the flagship species of Himalayan conservation, key to preserving this austere, delicate ecosystem.

Kulbhushansingh Suryawanshi is one of the world’s leading snow leopard scientists. In The Ghost of the Mountains, he offers an evocative and personal account of his decades of work in this field, from his exhilarating adventures on the high peaks to his efforts to build a community based, collaborative model for protecting the snow leopards and their remaining habitat. That habitat is increasingly under threat as encroaching development, ongoing armed conflict, and rapidly intensifying climate change transform this region.

Thrilling, illuminating, and filled with transportive storytelling, The Ghost of the Mountains reveals the challenges facing a beautiful, fragile ecosystem in the midst of a major transition. As Suryawanshi describes his crucial work as a conservationist in a rapidly changing world, he also conveys an infectious sense of wonder. For him, every snow leopard encounter is still a transcendent experience, offering a renewed sense of meaning and purpose.

Meet the author:

Kulbhushansingh Suryawanshi is an ecologist and conservationist who has spent almost two decades studying snow leopards in the wild. He is a Fellow of the British Ecological Society, the director of the India program of the Snow Leopard Trust, and a scientist with the Nature Conservation Foundation. He is a CIFAR fellow and National Geographic Explorer and was a fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin. He lives in Bangalore, India, with his wife and daughter.

About the moderator: 

Harini Nagendra, a professor of ecology at Azim Premji University, is a well-respected scholar on sustainability. Her impressive body of work includes the award-winning Nature in the City: Bengaluru in the Past, Present, and Future, and co-authored books like Cities and Canopies: Trees in Indian Cities which won the 2020 Publishing Next Award for Best Non-Fiction Book. Harini’s work has been internationally recognised, and she has made an indelible impact on both academic circles and the general public. Her debut crime novel, The Bangalore Detectives Club, was a New York Times Notable Book of 2022, and has been followed by sequels, including Murder Under a Red Moon and A Nest of Vipers.

RSVP to reserve your spot.