Illustrator Nirupa Rao grew up in Bangalore, in a family of botanists, where vacations often meant heading off to the Western Ghats to explore the rich, and extraordinary range of mountains. Early in life, she learnt to tell one plant from another, and marvel at all the secrets it held. But as she grew up, she realised that few who lived in the city around her shared these interests. “This is very peculiar to the times and the urban spaces we live. We have never been as disconnected from nature. Even adults struggle to identify extremely common trees they have grown up around,” she says. What happens when generations grow up with little or no connection with the natural world around them? Will they fight save it? It is this nagging question, that gave birth to the idea of Hidden Kingdoms — an illustrated book that heroes some of the native botanical wonders of the Western Ghats through hand-drawn sketches, accompanied with ecological facts, set to enchanting rhyme. “Many find plants boring, but the ones that we have featured in this book demonstrate just show captivating plants can be,” says Rao. Among the eleven described in the book, there’s the ghost orchid (Epipogium roseum), that grows on dark forest floors, where sunlight is scant. And Neelakurinji (Strobilanthes kunthianus), which blossoms once every 12 years, and covers mountains in carpets of blue. Some locals have learnt to calculate the age in flowering cycles. Each of Rao’s sketches, illustrated with painstaking detail and attention to scientific accuracy, draws out their most fantastical features. “I am hoping the book inspires a way of looking at the natural world around us, to start noticing the finer details in a forest, and even in your own backyard. A forest or a local garden is not just a mass of green — each tree, plant, flower has a story to tell.” The project, put together by illustrator Nirupa Rao; botanical researcher Siddarth Machado; conservation photographer Prasenjeet Yadav and brand-director Suniti Rao, hopes to excite children, as the magical realm of the lush mountain range once inspired their own childhood.