Upcoming book to put spotlight on mountain mammals of world

New Delhi, Jun 6 (PTI) A new book by conservationist MK Ranjitsinh is a guide to understanding the larger mammals of the mountains of the world that are "the most spectacular animals" on earth.

Touted to be a rare comprehensive work, "Mountain Mammals of the World", scheduled to release next month, is a mammoth collection of almost 62 species and 78 subspecies whose primary habitat and distribution are mountains.

It is published by Penguin Random House India (PRHI).

"I have restricted the scope of this book to only the larger mountain mammals, above approximately 20 kg in weight — again, arbitrarily. This is because covering all the mountain mammals of the world, from voles, moles, pikas and marmots to others, would have made the work encyclopedic, extending over a number of volumes.

"There is no one book as yet of even the larger mountain mammals of the world," writes the author in the book.

Ranjitsinh, 86-year-old former Madhya Pradesh cadre IAS officer from the 1961 batch, who has earned the moniker ‘India’s Cheetah Man’ for his pivotal role in wildlife conservation, brings alive the world of these mammals with spectacular photographs and maps to show the distribution of each species, their status, behaviour, ecology and other aspects.

The book's foreword is written by eminent biologist and conservationist George B Schaller, who said the book represents a "unique legacy and is a contribution to the world's wildlife which will help guide conservation programmes".

"No one knows the array of large mountain mammals better than Ranjitsinh. We are so fortunate that he has assembled his own information and insights as well as data from the available literature into this timely volume of 'Mountain Mammals of the World'," he added.

Ranjitsinh's most noted works are drafting of Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 of India and demarcating many forest as wildlife sanctuaries. PTI MG MAH MAH