he outcome of the Expert's meeting was to assess the status of faunal diversity in the Thar deserts, gaps in research and the future lines of work for creating a data base. Every chapter provides a complete account of species occurrence, their status and gaps in research. Future lines of research have been high lighted. Realising the rapid deterioration of the quality of the environment, the issues of species loss, reduction in the number of genes and genotypes in the agriculturally important species etc. has aroused great apprehension. During the meeting it was urged, all the countries should take every reasonable measure for long term conservation of the biological resources within their jurisdiction and list all the biological species occurring in a country to claim intellectual property rights over them.