In an uncompromising human-centric approach to development, who faces the most loss? Ecosystems? Yes. All other living beings? Yes. But, it is the human societies themselves that have everything to lose.
In this conversation, Tansy Troy, author of The Great Nicobar Journey, discusses the making of the book, conditioned ideas of power, and how youth have the capacity to change the protocol and what she wants the young readers to take away from the story.
The Great Nicobar Journey by Tansy Troy, published by Talking Cub is a deeply empathetic story about friendship, resistance, and the fight to protect our one beautiful planet we know as home. In this adventure novel, a group of animals from the Andaman and Nicobar islands travel across mainland India to meet the decision makers in Delhi in a bid to save their home. Along the way they meet endangered animals, members from the tribal communities and allies.
Tansy Troy is an India-based educationalist, poet, performer, playwright and maker of bird and animal masks. During term time, Tansy works as Director of Performing Arts at Shrewsbury International School India (Bhopal), where she tours eco dramas with her dramatic troupes of young performers around theatres and festivals of India. In 2021, she conceived The Apple Press, a young people’s eco journal which includes poetry, stories, articles and artwork by both students as young as eight years old and household names in literature.
In 2023, Tansy published her first collection of poetry, Ratnakosha, with Red River Press and since then, has had poetry, articles, reviews and illustrations in The Hindustan Times, The Hindu, The Scroll, Punch Magazine, Art Amour, Open Magazine, The Chakkar, Muse India, Plato’s Cave, Usawa, Sanctuary Asia and Frontline Her verse has been anthologised in The Yearbooks of Indian Poetry in English 2023, 2024 and 2025 (published Pippa Rann, London) and The Tagore Anthology.
In 2025, Red River published Tansy’s second book of poetry, With Earth as My Witness while The Writers Workshop published a third collection, Singing to the Eumenides. This summer of 2026 sees the release of a novel for the young and passionate at heart, The Great Nicobar Journey, published by Talking Cub, an imprint of Speaking Tiger. When school is out, Tansy nests with her family of beautiful animals (and a few humans) in the majestic Himalayas.
Shruti Sharma is the founder of The Earth Book Club and Books on the Delhi Metro, two community-driven initiatives born from a simple belief that books have the power to become both a personal refuge and a tool for collective change.
Through The Earth Book Club, an Instagram-based environmental literature community she started in 2021, Shruti curates green literature for readers of all ages, championing the idea that informed, engaged readers are essential to building a better future. With Books on the Delhi Metro, she brings that same love of reading into the city’s daily commute, turning ordinary journeys into moments of discovery and connection.
By day, Shruti works as a marketing professional at an IT company. But books and stories have always been her true passion. She has spoken on this journey as a TEDx speaker, bringing back the joy of reading in public spaces.
