Entomology in the Doon Valley (Garhwal Region) is a unique journey into annals of the country’s most fascinating and highly entomofauna rich habitat – the Dehra Dun or the Doon Valley, tucked in the cosy climate of the foothills of the lower Himalayan region. Notwithstanding an unprecedented quantum of fragmented information available on the insects of the Doon Valley, courtesy various different long term research programmes carried out at the three major research institutions, viz., the Forest Research Institute & Colleges, the Zoological Survey of India and The Dayanand Anglo Vedic (PG) College, all located in Dehra Dun, yet no single entomological treatise detailing all the insect orders, supported by relevant local references, was ever offered to have a firsthand knowledge on the Doon Valley’s buoyant research tradition. For the first time, therefore, the present treatment comes forward to satiate a nature-lover’s desire to know completely about their own insect fauna. Besides offering an uncanny history of research, along with a string of researchers and institutions engaged in entomological research in the Doon Valley, the book describes entomologic characteristics of all the 32 Orders of Class Insecta, with emphasis on research contributions on the local and endemic fauna. To facilitate our understanding, the book offers as an example inventories of the extant taxa of a couple of orders and, still more importantly, bio-bibliographies of a few Doon Valley entomologists, as inspirational life stories for the beginners.
The Book, written in a lucid language, will surely serve a good purpose for both the undergraduates, postgraduates and research scholars engaged in insect research, on one hand, and the professional entomologists not only from the Grahwal region but also across the country and beyond, on the other.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR B.K. Tyagi
Born on 23rd July, 1951 in Agra (UP), Dr. B.K. Tyagi completed his early schooling, college education and doctoral research in reputed institutions and Universities, and was adjudged best M.Sc. student (1974) and Research Scholar (1978), besides winning as post-doctoral researcher fellowships like JRF, SRF, PDF and Research Associateship under various GOI organizations. Before taking up his life long mission on mosquito research in 1981, he has worked quite extensively on as varied disciplines as odonate and thrips’ cytotaxonomy, termite and ant ecology, collembolan taxonomy, entomogenous fungi and insect conservation. While pursuing research on vector-borne diseases like malaria, filariasis and dengue, dr. Tyagi has extensively worked in several States/Uts in the country, such as Gujarat, Pondicherry, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. He has to his credit nearly 170 titles, mostly on medical entomology, and most of which published in both national and international scientific journals. Dr. Tyagi was selected for the First Prize in a worldwide competition organized by the TDR/WHO in 1996, and his prized contribution was published in the Annual Report of the WHO, Geneva. In the scientific arena Dr. Tyagi has held many prestigious positions: (i) He was elected as the first National Representative in-Charge in South Asia for the International Odonatological Society (1981-1994), (ii) He was elected as the first Member in-Charge in southern Asia for the Odonata Specialist Group of Species Survival Commission (IUCN) (1985-1995), and (iii) He has been serving on the editorial boards of about a dozen scientific journals, in addition to being a Fellow and / or Member of nearly two dozens of national and international scientific bodies, including the prestigious royal Entomological Society, UK. He has visited several countries like France, Switzerland, USA, Czech Republic and Canada, for presenting scientific papers etc. He is the author of his magnum opus “Malaria in the Thar Desert: Facts, Figures and Futuresâ€, published in 2002. He has also invented a mechanical mosquito sampler which is patented by the Indian Council of Medical Research, New Delhi.
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