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This is a monographic work on the Eastern Ghats, one of the geologically earliest formed hill ranges of India. The eastern ghats occupies the eastern part of peninsular India and traverses through states of Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka as a chain of discontinuous hills and hillocks. The cultural, ethical, religious, moral, biological and geological richness of Eastern Ghats is extremely vast. Much valuable research has been done by people belonging to diverse disciplines of science, technology and humanities but there is yet insufficient coordination between people of these disciplines to arrive at a holistic perspective of the Eastern Ghats. This book is the response to an urgent need for collecting and documenting all the scattered research work done so far on Eastern Ghats.

Attention has been provided to briefly discuss the extent and distribution of Eastern Ghats in peninsular India followed by an account on the geological origin and the subsequent changes it underwent till today. A detailed account on the various geo-resources available in Eastern Ghats is also provided. The subsequent chapters describe the forest, vegetation and land use patterns, flora and fauna and plant, animal, microbial resources. The book also focuses on the traditional knowledge systems of the diverse tribes and how potential is this knowledge towards the origin, domestication and development of crop plants.

Eastern Ghats houses floral and faunal elements known from several parts of India as well as from adjoining countries. The presence of shared elements between these regions has been explained on the basis of well-known bio-geographical theories. The most important aspect of the book is the presence of a comprehensive account on endemic and threatened taxa that need priority conservation measures. The probable factors, both stochastic and deterministic, which are responsible for the degradation of Eastern Ghats, which in turn has resulted in causing the threatened status of these taxa are detailed. The steps taken so far for the effective conservation and management as well as those that are to be urgently taken in the coming years are also detailed. What would and should be the future of Eastern Ghats forms the ultimate aspect of discussion in this book.

Contents: 1. Extent delimitation constituent hill ranges and physiographic organization. 2. Geology georesources and climate. 3. Forest and vegetation types and landuse patterns. 4. Flora and plant resources. 5. Fauna and animal resources. 6. Tribals and traditional knowledge resources. 7. Microbes and microbial resources. 8. Biogeography. 9. Degradation of environment and loss of biodiversity. 10. Conservation and management. 11. The future of eastern ghats. References. Appendices.