The idea for the present volume stems from the In many cases we had to decide ourselves what long time friendship between the series editor and changes had to be made in the manuscript. This the volume editor. The field work was carried out was done, however, with the prior consent of during several years of the last two decades by Professor Pandeya. We hope that we did not Professor Pandeya and his team of workers: overlook any items which should have been S. C. Sharma, H. K. Jain, K. C. Paliwal, V. M. changed - if we did, it is our responsibility. In Bhanot, S. J. Pathak, R. Sharma, S. C. Bhatt, P. K. order to demonstrate our responsibility I have Mathur, Y. N. Rao and G. V. Saratbabu. The wide signed as co-editor of this volume. scope of the undertaking required expeditions and The series editor accepted this unusual task individual field studies for which reports were because the topic is of great significance for dry available. subtropical regions of the world. It was the task of Professor Pandey a to sift all The Cenchrus grasslands are of great importance this information and put it together in a form in the dry areas of South East Asia. The value of understandable for an international audience. the ecological grassland study for range manage­ The manuscript was delivered to the series edi­ ment is therefore obvious.