The book traces the evolution of wildlife management in the state of Karnataka in India. It provides glimpses of how the concept of wildlife management grew as an offshoot of forest management and evolved into an overarching policy initiative. It presents a chronological account of the development of national wildlife policies, plans and strategies and their impact on the wildlife management in the states. The book highlights the events that unfolded as production-centric management gave way to wildlife-centric management in certain designated forest areas, known as Protected Areas. It outlines a significant aspect of wildlife conservation in the state—namely, the immense contribution of a ‘conservation-oriented forest management’ approach that the Forest Department has adopted since the 1980s for management of all types of forests in the state. The challenges faced by wildlife officers in handling matters related to man-animal conflict, rehabilitation of people from protected areas and forest protection with possible suggestions to resolve them are related. The need to take cautious steps in strengthening wildlife tourism and research is emphasized. The book also examines the relative merits of the forest laws and wildlife laws, and calls for wider application of the wildlife laws to protect the vanishing forests, especially in the eastern plains.

There is a growing interest at the national and international levels in Health as a development issue, with particular reference to government policies in relation to the planning and promotion of health care. A great deal of literature on health planning and policy is available at these levels.

Currently 20,000-30,000 species of fish are identified in the diverse aquatic ecosystems globally, as a result in a freshwater ecosystem everyday new species are including by the researchers in the area of Ichthyology diversity. Generally, 24000 fish species listed scientifically in the global scenario, in that, nearer to 11% are available in Indian aquatic environment. Among them, 2200 species so far recorded, 3.32% belongs to the cold freshwater ecosystem, 24.73% belongs to the warm fresh waters bodies, 6.50% belongs to the brackish waters and 65.45% belongs to the ocean system. In that, the fish biodiversity of the Karnataka shares the richness of species around 240, in Cauvery river belt of Southern Karnataka share around 109 species, in Krishna river belt of Northern share around 168 species, in Kali river belt of Western Karnataka share 124 species and Karnaja river belt of Eastern Karnataka share 59 species of fishes distributed as a 102 genera, 38 families and 14 orders covering whole Karnataka fish diversity. Among these total fish species, 3 orders dominating with diverse species richness by the composition of Cypriniformes covering 5 families, 45 genera and 140 species, whereas order Siluriformes covering 9 families, 24 genera and 51 species and in Perciformes covering 9 families, 15 genera and 26 species. It has been also recognized as around 40 species under the list of threatened, 5 species are critically endangered, 22 species are endangered and 13 are vulnerable as per the red data book. As conservation strategies, researchers were involved with selective breeding method to enrich the native fish species and it may help to reduce or mitigate the problem of fish species diversity in Karnataka.

Peninsular India is one among the few regions of the world harboring natural teak forests. Karnataka is one of the states in the region that was blessed with extensive teak forests. Due to centuries of heavy exploitation for the prized wood and large-scale artificial introduction of teak since more than a century, the pristine teak forests have shrunk rapidly, being now confined only to a few pockets, mostly in the protected areas. Natural teak has virtually become an endangered species. The book, Stranger at Home – Teak Forests of Karnataka, attempts at sharing some information about the extensive natural teak forests that existed in Karnataka in the distant past. It also dwells upon the history of the development of teak plantations in the state. For various reasons including policy changes, court directives, lack of adequate funds, manpower, etc., management of these plantations has been a challenging task. The impact of monoculture on the biodiversity of the natural forest had also come in for sharper scrutiny and severe criticism. All these developments have somewhat slowed down the activities related to the management of the plantations, at times bordering on inaction. The book discusses various aspects and challenges associated with the management of teak forests and plantations, suggesting ways and means to forge ahead in the context of overall forest conservation with a special focus on biodiversity conservation.