The Toothless Cobra and other stories from the wild

Nabanita Deshmukh

Mey 2019 · The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI)

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Grandma cobra has lost her tooth, and she is furious because she can’t find it. To make it worse, it is a moonless night and the jungle is pitch dark. Maybe that slimy frog Mandu has stolen it thinking that it’s a treasure. And Kumi, a little adivasi girl, is out there in the dense forest looking for the chataka bird. But why? Because the fields of her village are parched, and the chataka is the messenger of rain, for it is known to ride on the monsoon winds.

The Toothless Cobra… takes the readers into the heart of the wild and reveals its mysterious creatures in all their majesty, all their moods. Its charming illustrations bring the animals to life and capture them in action in their natural habitat. This collection of short stories promotes the idea of positive human–animal interactions and encourages young readers to love and care

for animals.

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Nabanita Deshmukh, a teacher, loves to write stories and poems for children—she believes that stories have the power to transform attitudes. She has spent considerable time with indigenous and village communities to learn about oral traditions and folklore, which inform and shape her storytelling. She is an alumna of Sri Aurobindo International Centre for Education (Pondicherry), a school that promotes alternative learning. A prolific writer, Nabanita regularly contributes articles and rhymes to various children’s magazines and has more than 800 stories to her credit. The Disappearing Beach (2017) was her last book.