The book, ‘Distribution of trees across the Western Ghats in Karnataka’, provides an analytical overview of how trees and other plants are distributed across various forests of the Western Ghats region in the state of Karnataka in India. The analysis is based on feedback provided by field functionaries of the Karnataka Forest Department (KFD) in pursuance of a project initiated by KFD in collaboration with the Karnataka State Remote Sensing Applications Centre (KSRSAC), Bengaluru, to study various aspects of the state’s forests. Given the enormity of the data regarding trees and other plants adorning the forests of the entire state, the analysis in the present book is limited to the western half of the state’s Western Ghats region comprising the five districts of Belagavi, Uttara Kannada, Udupi, Dakshina Kannada and Kodagu. Range-wise segregation of the data has thrown light on various attributes such as forest types, tree distribution, tree association, tree dominance, tree preponderance, etc. in each forest range. Comparative analysis of such information for a cluster of ranges enables understanding of how these attributes change across a larger landscape such as a forest division or a forest circle. Analysis of the data has also provided information about the extent of fragmentation of natural forests due to plantations. Such information can be quite useful in rehabilitating monoculture patches back to natural forest.

The book provides an overview of the various types of forests occurring in the Indian state of Karnataka. Some of the most magnificent tropical forests of the Western Ghats are found here, including evergreen, semi-evergreen, moist deciduous, dry deciduous, thorn, shola, swamp and mangrove. Although scattered information about these forests is available, such information for the whole state is not available in the form of a comprehensive document. The book, while providing district-wise information about Karnataka’s forests, also dwells upon the interplay of different factors that have led to the formation and transformation of these forests. It critically analyzes the salient features about tropical forests, their past management and present status; this is relevant not only to Karnataka’s forests but also to the tropical forests of peninsular India, in particular, and Indian forests in general. The book provides a brief description about some 325 tree species—some endemic to the Western Ghats, some stretching from Australia to Africa and many pan-India—touching upon their ecology, habitat, field characteristics, tips for identification and utilization, including traditional medicinal uses. These trees represent a very wide spectrum of the trees from tropical forests.

Growing human populations and higher demands for water impose increasing impacts and stresses upon freshwater biodiversity. Their combined effects have made these animals more endangered than their terrestrial and marine counterparts. Overuse and contamination of water, overexploitation and overfishing, introduction of alien species, and alteration of natural flow regimes have led to a 'great thinning' and declines in abundance of freshwater animals, a 'great shrinking' in body size with reductions in large species, and a 'great mixing' whereby the spread of introduced species has tended to homogenize previously dissimilar communities in different parts of the world. Climate change and warming temperatures will alter global water availability, and exacerbate the other threat factors. What conservation action is needed to halt or reverse these trends, and preserve freshwater biodiversity in a rapidly changing world? This book offers the tools and approaches that can be deployed to help conserve freshwater biodiversity.

Agroforestry in Karnataka – A Golden Opportunity for Green Growth highlights various aspects of agroforestry – a system of introduction, or rather reintroduction, of trees in and around agricultural lands in order to restore the ancient, organic relationship that existed between forest and agriculture. The book traces the evolution of agroforestry in the state of Karnataka in India and recounts the strides that have been made in this direction in the recent years. It dwells upon the multifarious beneficial effects of agroforestry on forest conservation, soil and water conservation, and development of agriculture, horticulture, sericulture, animal husbandry, apiculture, etc. Although agroforestry is seen as a very pragmatic step to increase the forest or tree cover, its benefits go far beyond: it has the potential of transforming the entire rural/agrarian landscape in terms of economic, ecological and environmental development. It is also likely to be the most befitting response to the challenges posed by climate change. It is difficult to visualize a climate-smart agricultural system without trees having been accorded a complementary but important role in it. In the coming days, agroforestry may hold the key to an overarching development in the agricultural sector, more particularly in the vast and expanding parched regions, where signs of desertification, drought, poverty, hunger and death are becoming increasingly ominous.