Mountain Mammals of the World

About this book

There are numerous books available on the wildlife of different countries and continents and even of habitats and ecotypes like rainforests, wetlands and deserts. However, there is no a comprehensive work on the larger mammals of the mountains of the world. In this book, the author, who has been one of the foremost conservationists in India and has spearheaded several programmes for the protection of wildlife, brings alive the world of these mammals with his insightful writing.

With spectacular photographs and maps to show the distribution of each species, their status, behaviour, ecology and other aspects, this is a mammoth collection of about sixty-two species and seventy-eight subspecies that inhabit this world.

Mountain Mammals of the World is a definitive guide to the understanding of the most spectacular animals on earth, against the backdrop of some of the world's most splendid scenery.

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Biography

M.K. Ranjitsinh belongs to the royal family of Wankaner. He joined the IAS in 1961. As a collector living in Mandla, Madhya Pradesh, he helped save the central Indian barasingha (a deer species) from extinction. As secretary of forests and tourism in Madhya Pradesh, he established fourteen new sanctuaries, eight new national parks, and more than doubled the area of three existing national parks, a total addition of over 9000 km² to the protected areas of India. He was the prime architect of the Wildlife (Protection) Act; was director of wildlife preservation twice; and was an additional secretary in the Ministry of Environment and Forests. He was a member secretary of the task force which initiated Project Tiger and he also initiated Project Snow Leopard; he helped save the Manipur sangai (a deer species) and other endangered species. The eastern subspecies of the barasingha is named after him. He worked with UNEP as a senior regional advisor in Nature Conservation for the Asia-Pacific region. He has published numerous articles and two books, Beyond the Tiger and The Indian Blackbuck.

He has been awarded the Order of the Golden Ark by the Netherlands for ‘outstanding work on behalf of international conservation both in India and in South East Asia’; the Global 500 Roll of Honour of UNEP ‘in recognition of outstanding practical achievements in the protection and improvement of the environment’, and a number of other awards.