This engaging book presents an insightful look into the contributing factors which have shaped the modern public health system in Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh. Reflecting on the historical, socio-economic, and contemporary scenario of environment and public health, this book presents essays that discusses the role of spatial patterns of diseases, health risk patterns, contributions of medical missionaries in health services in Kashmir, changing disease ecology of Leh and traditional medical therapy in Ladakh, among others.
The book also examines the cholera ecology in Kashmir during the nineteenth century, the significance of Kangri - a portable traditional heat source - in cultural studies, economics, and cancer research. It investigates the role of traditional knowledge in the medical therapy of rural areas of Ladakh and the impact of urbanization on quality of human health in Srinagar City. Besides the book examines iodine deficiency disorders and the extension of vector-borne diseases. The essays also probe into the rising mental health concerns in post-pandemic Kashmir.
This book will be useful for students, researchers and teachers of physical geography, human geography, environmental studies, public health, and health sciences. It will also be of interest to political geographers, sociologists, policymakers, and those interested in the issues related to health and environment in the region.
About the Author: Rais Akhtar has taught at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, University of Zambia, Lusaka, and the University of Kahmir, Srinagar, J&K. Prof. Akhtar is the first geographer who published his research in medical geography and Climate change and health in national and international journals including the prestigious medical journal The Lancet. Prof. Akhtar has to his credit more than 100 research papers and 20 books published from India and abroad including Greenwood Press, New York, Harwood Academic publisher, London and Springer. The books entitled-Health and Disease in Tropical Africa: Medical and Geographical Viewpoints (London,1987), Health Care Patterns and Planning in Developing Countries (1990), Malaria in South Asia (2010), Climate Change and Human Health Scenario in South and Southeast Asia (2016), Climate Change and Air Pollution (2018), Extreme Weather Events and Human Health (2020), and Coronavirus (COVID-19) Outbreaks, Environment and Human Behaviour (2021). Rais Akhtar is recipient of a number of international fellowships including-Leverhulme Overseas Visiting Fellow (University of Liverpool), Henry Chapman Fellow University of London, Commonwealth Secretariat Fellowship, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, London, Visiting Fellow, University of Sussex and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Royal Society short Visiting Fellowship, University of Oxford, Visiting Professor, University of Paris, Nanterre, Paris-10, Visiting Fellowship, Free University of Brussels, Belgium, French Government Visiting Fellowship, MSH Visiting Fellow, Paris and Visiting Fellow Welcome Trust, London, and Visiting Lecturer, University of Akron, USA.
