This book owes its genesis to the First National Symposium on Earthworm Ecology and Environment held at Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Rohilkhand University, Bareilly (Uttar Pradesh) in April 2007. At this Symposium, attended by nearly 110 scientists from all over the country, 80 research presentations were made in eight different sessions. Out of the total presentations, 18 invited research papers have been selected and edited to form chapters of the book.
There are four sections in the book covering all the major aspects of earthworm biology, including earthworm taxonomy, diversity and their multifarious usages in maintaining soil fertility, increasing crop productivity, improving human health and saving environment from solid waste contaminations. These contributions by distinguished earthworm biologists of the country represent the state of the art summary of the ecology and importance of earthworms in Indian context and should be highly valuable not only to the soil scientists alone but also to the environmentalists, ecologists, policy makers, farmers and students in long term maintenance of soil structure, fertility and pollution abatement.