Contents: Preface. Introduction. Organisation of the book. Check list: Order: 1. Insectivora. 2. Scandentia. 3. Chiroptera. 4. Primates. 5. Carnivora. 6. Cetacea. 7. Sirenia. 8. Proboscidea. 9. Perissodactyla. 10. Artiodactyla. 11. Pholidota. 12. Rodentia. 13. Lagomorpha. Annexures. References. Index.

From the preface: "India has a rich and varied heritage of biodiversity, encompassing a wide variety of habitats from tropical rainforests to alpine vegetation and temperate forests to coastal wetlands. Of the twenty-four hot spots identified globally, India holds two – The Western Ghats and Eastern Himalayas, which feature among the top eight most important hotspots. In addition, India is one of the twelve-mega biodiversity countries of the world and one of four in Asia. India has more than 89,000 species of Fauna, which is 7.2% of the known Global Faunal diversity.

"Of the 4629 Mammal species known Globally, India has 397 species, which is about 9% of the world mammalian fauna. Ellerman and Morrison-Scott (1951), Corbett and Hill (1992) and Wilson and Reeder (1993) while dealing with World Mammals refer to Indian mammalian fauna. Though many in-depth accounts of Indian mammals have been written since the 19 century, namely, Blandford (1880), Lydekker (1913), Pocock (1939, 1941) and Prater (1971), there is still no comprehensive compendium on Indian Mammals. The objective of the present work is to compile an account of Indian Mammals in one volume and place them within a taxonomic framework after taking into account the pertinent published studies.

"As far as possible all related published work on Indian Mammals have been referred to. Moreover in the absence of recent revisionary work on many groups of Indian Mammals, a mixture of primary and secondary sources has been consulted.

"The present checklist includes up to date synonymy of each species, their geographical distribution in India and their conservation and trade status. Of the 397 Indian species 46 are endemic and 77 are threatened."