New Delhi: From the wetlands of the Sunderbans and the salt flats of the Rann of Kutch to the snowy Himalayas and the rainforests of the Deccan, Mammals of India explores the extraordinary variety of mammals that inhabit the country’s vastly different landscapes. The book documents more than 450 currently recognised species, along with key subspecies and hypothetical occurrences, while examining the often-overlooked connections between these animals, their habitats and human life.
Written by wildlife biologists A.J.T. Johnsingh and P.O. Nameer, the book brings together information on the taxonomy, habitats, populations and conservation status of India’s mammals, while also looking at the climatic challenges they have adapted to and the country’s geological and geomorphological evolution. Featuring detailed species accounts, illustrations and distribution maps, it serves as a comprehensive reference for researchers and conservationists as well as a guide for wildlife enthusiasts. The book also traces the remarkable diversity of India’s mammalian fauna across its varied zoogeographical regions, from elephants, rhinoceroses and primates to rodents, bats, pangolins, dolphins and other lesser-known species.
Published jointly by HarperCollins India and the Bombay Natural History Society, the book also carries a wider conservation message, drawing attention to the pressures facing India’s mammalian fauna and the need to understand the species and habitats that sustain them. The work was completed by P.O. Nameer following Johnsingh’s death in June 2024, preserving the contribution of one of India’s most influential wildlife biologists to a field he spent decades documenting and protecting.
A.J.T. Johnsingh was a pioneering wildlife biologist and conservationist whose work spanned several decades of field research and wildlife protection in India. A former faculty member and Dean at the Wildlife Institute of India, he studied species and landscapes across the country and played an influential role in shaping modern wildlife research and conservation. He was awarded the Padma Shri for his contribution to wildlife conservation. P.O. Nameer is Professor of Wildlife Sciences at Kerala Agricultural University and a specialist in mammalian taxonomy, ecology and biogeography, with particular expertise in the Western Ghats. The two authors had earlier collaborated on Mammals of South Asia.
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