Contributed articles.

This book offers a comprehensive account of India’s four biodiversity hotspots: the Himalaya, Indo-Burma, Western Ghats and Sri Lanka and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. With a focus on tropical rainforests, it includes more than 30 chapters covering different vertebrate fauna e.g. fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals, as well as topics such as conservation and management aspects. Written by experts in the field of biodiversity conservation and management, it offers ample new insights into a number of subjects related to the faunal communities of tropical forest ecosystems, providing a valuable resource for conservationists and researchers in the field of flora and fauna diversity.

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India, consist of 572 islands with a land area of 8,249 km2. Their topography is hilly and undulating, with elevations up to 732 m on the Andaman and up to 568 m on the Nicobar Islands. They are known for their rich biodiversity and a very high degree of endemicity in all taxa, especially in plants, reptiles, fishes and corals. Their habitats include bays, mangroves, moist deciduous forests and evergreen forests. Comprising 20 chapters each written by an expert or professional in his/her particular field this book offers new insights into the fascinating faunal communities of these islands and provides the fundamentals for their conservation and environmental management.