Handbook on Indian Testudines

Dr. Benoy Krishna Tikader, born inj Joydihi, a small village in the District of Khulna, now in Bangladesh, was educated at the University of Calcutta.  Dr. Tikader, was awarded the Ph.D. and D.Sc. Degree of the Calcutta University for his outstanding and meritorious contributions on spiders.  He has been actively engaged in taxonomic and ecological research on spiders and scorpions of the Indian region for the past three decades.  The author is also writing a Handbook on Indian Spiders which will give complete information about the Arachnida of India.  Some other books by this author on various subjects are also under publication, viz., Sea Shore Animals of Andaman and Nicobar Islands (with colour illustrations), Glimpses of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Beautiful Shells of Andaman and Nicobar Sea and their Utility for Cottage Industry, Endemic Birds of India and Handbook of Indian Testudines.  Dr. Tikader has a hobby of wildlife and nature photography and majority of the photographs which will be used in the above mentioned books are by him.  Dr. Tikader is at present the Director of the Zoological Survey of India and is a member of the Indian Board for Wildlife.

Prof. R.C. Sharma headed important Museums of the country like Government Museum, Mathura; State Museum, Lucknow; Indian Museum,, Kolkata and finally, the Natioinal Museum, New Delhi as the Director-General and Vice-Chancellor, National Museum Institute. He also served the Banaras Hindu University as the Director, Bharat Kala Bhavan and Professor of Indian art and Museology. Presently, he is the Honorary Director / Acharya of Jnana-Pravaha – Centre for Cultural Studies, Varanasi. Beside authoring several books and editing journals and bulletins in the field of Early Indian Art, he has contributed a large number of papers published in the journals in India and abroad.