Q: There has lately been a profusion of books on the birds of the Indian sub-continent, why none on mammals for the last 50 years ?VM: Bats and rats – I think these two have been the primary stumbling blocks for a book on mammals in 50 years. I have seen a large body of people immersed in the smallest of warblers – but cannot remember too many who watch or care for rats or bats. I know a few people who did attempt a book, but stopped at the big mammals. Bats, and rodents, (which includes mice, rats, squirrels, marmots, and porcupines) together account for 50 % of the Indian mammal species.

Q: How would you describe this book?

VM: My publishers have described it as a definitive field guide to mammals of India. It is primarily a field guide meant for the informed lay person. It is meant to assist easy identification in the field or even as a quick reference.

Q: Does it have new and up to date information?

VM: I would say 75% of the information in this book is new to a field guide. This is because so many species dealt with here have not been dealt with in any other book. But as it is in these sorts of books, a lot of the information is collated from secondary published information, and not completely on my own observations. Although I have a perspective after wandering around for 15 years in forests, I was restricted by the format of the book, which is a popular and established Dorling Kindersley field guide format. This is where this book differs from Prater, which meant that I could not put in a lot more information even though I wanted to.

But, I must mention the Mammals of Pakistan by T.J. Roberts, which was singularly educative and useful in gleaning behavioral observations and species information about the subject. I would say that our two books are perhaps a big testimony to Indo-Pak relations as most of the mammals of Pakistan are common to India and to some extent vice-versa just as the peoples of the two countries are.

It took me two years to do this book, may be in another five years I will be ready with a more detailed book. But what I would really like is user feedback about how effective this book is in the field? Are the pictures and descriptions right. This will help me improve the book further.

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