The Invincible Deadly Mosquitoes is a book with a difference, written in clear, simple and lucid language, and directed both at professional as well as amateur readership. The book is in fact a tribute to all those great entomologists and doctors, exemplified by a few chosen biographical sketches, who relentlessly worked arduously through all thick and thin to stem out the menace called mosquito. The dangers levied on humans by this tiny creature are too many, from irritating and painful bites to transmitting debilitating and deadly infections like malaria, filariasis, dengue, yellow fever and many types of encephalitides, many of which persistently occur in India. Mosquitoes, and the incapacitating diseases they transmit, have for long been considered to sap off individual’s and the country’s most vital resource, the blood, and, in the process, lend intellectual improvishment on its people. The book, organized into fourteen chapters dealing with detailed morphology, taxonomy, feeding behaviour and control aspects, tells it all in the most straight forward manner, added with simple and comprehensible data projections. Mosquito, man’s deadliest enemy on earth, in terms of both health and economy, is only getting mightier despite all our efforts to control it in past, and has now advanced to pose an inevitable threat to his successful survival. As biological entity, chronologically older and far too greatly seasoned, mosquito appears to be invincible if only targeted for a complete annihilation. Co-existence of both mosquito and man, without allowing the former to vex the latter, has to be designed by the more wiser one the homo sapiens. This book a unique experiment-thus offers a novel stimulus behind the mosquito saga and should hopefully serve country’s medical entomologists a great deal in comprehending the real strengths and weaknesses of his bete noire, the mosquito.
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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