Wildlife of India


Book Description

A comprehensive and user-friendly photographic field guide covering more than 1,000 birds, mammals, insects, reptiles, and plants The Indian subcontinent is exceptionally rich in wildlife because of its wide variety of habitats and climates, ranging from the ocean to the Himalayas and from the Rajasthan desert to Mawsynram in Meghalaya, one of the wettest places on earth. This diversity supports a huge range of charismatic species, from the iconic Tiger to Clouded Leopards, crocodiles to King Cobras, hornbills to eagles. Covering these animals and many others, as well as trees and flowers, this color photographic field guide describes and illustrates more than 1,000 species from all over India, including the Andaman and Nicobar islands. The guide begins with an overview of India’s climate and geography, its wildlife habitats and how to enjoy them, and threats to wildlife. The main part of the book includes concise species descriptions of 770 birds, 114 mammals, 72 butterflies and other insects, 54 reptiles, and 54 plants, each accompanied by a photograph. The book concludes with a section on wildlife-watching in the national parks and wildlife sanctuaries, which offer the best chance of seeing many of the species described. Describes and illustrates more than 1,000 species from all across India—including some 770 birds, 114 mammals, 72 butterflies and other insects, 54 reptiles, and 54 plants Features more than 1,000 color photographs Includes a guide to national parks and wildlife sanctuaries and the key species to be seen there




Flora and Fauna of India


Book Description




Rare Animals of India


Book Description

Rare Animals of India is a unique book that presents the biological and ecological accounts of the least known animal species of India in one comprehensive volume. The book gives comprehensive ecological accounts supported with data tables on rare and specific animal species of India and discusses the basis for their rarity and their conservation. It includes information about the Indian Gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) the endangered Forest Owlet (Heteroglaux blewitti), the Bengal Marsh Mongoose, Snow Leopards and many more. Readers are guided through several chapters each detailing a specific kind of animal, some of them being on the list of endangered species. With over 150 color illustrations, this intriguing reference will be of immense interest to zoologists, ecologists, naturalists and conservation biologists as well as general readers across the world interested in studying such rare animals found in the length and breadth of the Indian region.




Ecology and Biogeography in India


Book Description

This book describes the outstanding features of the ecology and bio geography of the Indian region, comprising former British India, Nepal, Bhutan, Ceylon and Burma. It summarizes the results of nearly four decades' studies and field explorations and discussions with students on the distribution of plants and animals, practically throughout this vast area and on the underlying factors. A number of specialists in geology, meteorology, botany, zoology, ecology and anthropology have also actively collaborated with me and have contributed valuable chapters in their respective fields. India has an exceptionally rich and highly diversified flora and fauna, exhibiting complex composition, character and affinities. Although the fauna of the Indian region as a whole is less completely known than its flora, we are nevertheless fairly well acquainted with at least the salient features of its faunal characters to enable us to present a meaningful discussion on some of the outstanding peculiarities of the biogeography of India. A general synthesis of the available, though much scattered, information should prove useful to future students of biogeography throughout the world.




Sacred Animals of India


Book Description

Animals are worshipped in India in many ways: as deities—the elephant-god Ganesha and the monkey-god Hanuman; as avatars—like Vishnu’s fish, tortoise and boar forms; and as vahanas—the swan, bull, lion and tiger were all vehicles of major deities and are thus sacred by association. Some animals, like the snake, are worshipped out of fear. Birds such as the crow are associated with the abode of the dead, or the souls of ancestors, while the cow’s sanctity may derive from its economic value. There are also hero-animals, such as the vanaras, and animals which were totemic symbols of tribes that were assimilated into Vedic Hinduism. Sacred Animals of India draws on the ancient religious traditions of India—Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism—to explore the customs and practices that engendered the veneration of animals in India. This book also examines the traditions that gave animals in India protection, and is a reminder of the role of animal species in the earth’s biodiversity.







Wild Animals in Central India


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Flora of India


Book Description




Sacred Plants of India


Book Description

Plants personify the divine— The Rig Veda (X.97) Trees and plants have long been held sacred to communities the world over. In India, we have a whole variety of flora that feature in our myths, our epics, our rituals, our worship and our daily life. There is the pipal, under which the Buddha meditated on the path to enlightenment; the banyan, in whose branches hide spirits; the ashoka, in a grove of which Sita sheltered when she was Ravana’s prisoner; the tulsi, without which no Hindu house is considered complete; the bilva, with whose leaves it is possible to inadvertently worship Shiva. Before temples were constructed, trees were open-air shrines sheltering the deity, and many were symbolic of the Buddha himself. Sacred Plants of India systematically lays out the sociocultural roots of the various plants found in the Indian subcontinent, while also asserting their ecological importance to our survival. Informative, thought-provoking and meticulously researched, this book draws on mythology and botany and the ancient religious traditions of India to assemble a detailed and fascinating account of India’s flora.




Wild Animals Of India


Book Description

This book on “Wild Animals Of India” has been written with a motive to provide information at a glance to the readers interested in wildlife. The animals chosen for the study were of greater interest because they have been declared endangered, critically endangered, vulnerable or priority species in the IUCN Red data book and most of the species are included as course material at undergraduate and post graduate levels in Indian Universities. Hence, this is an endeavour to create awareness among the student community on Wild Life Biology. Efforts have been made to acquaint the readers with geographical distribution, habit, habitat, reproductive behavior and conservation measures of the animals.