The three books under review here, all belonging to the Environment and Nature category, cover India’s many protected areas. India has designated its protected wildlife areas as National Parks, Wildlife Sanctuaries, Bird Sanctuaries and Tiger Reserves. Besides this, there are areas that are designated as Important Bird Areas. Similarly, the country’s Western Ghats and the North East are declared global biodiversity hotspots.
Important Bird Areas of Maharashtra: Priority Sites for Conservation covers twenty Important Biodiversity Areas (IBAs), also called Key Biodiversity Areas of the State Areas, identified by Bird Life International and partner organizations in countries around the world. In India the organization along with the Bombay Natural History Society and other partners has identified 466 IBAs, perhaps the largest in any country. These IBAs are characterized by diverse avifauna need protection. Needless to say such areas are also home to other wildlife— mammals, reptiles, butterflies, thus calling for the protection of the high biodiversity areas.
The book begins with an introduction that gives Maharashtra-specific information on vegetation, avifaunal diversity, the near threatened, vulnerable, endangered and critically endangered bird species, protected areas and a list of existing and proposed IBAs. The various threats and conservation issues are also discussed. Also, the State of Maharashtra has two biomes—the Indian Peninsula Tropical Moist Forest, in the Western Ghats, and the Indo-Malayan Tropical Dry Zone, that is, biomes number 10 and 11. The various protected areas fall under these two categories of biomes as habitats.