**1. Introduction**

India is a republic democratic and second most populous country in the world having a population of over 1.30 billion people in Asian continent entirely in the northern hemisphere. This is a country of great diversified ethnicities, religions, languages, cultures and food habits. One of the oldest civilizations in the world, Indo-Aryans (72%) of North India, Dravidians of South India (25%), Mongoloids (3%) and other minority populations constitute the ethnic groups. Dravidians are the original inhabitants of the country. The Indus Valley Civilization or the Harappan Civilization with a link to the Indo-Aryans migrated to the country at about 1800 BC. With this background, India has been a model country in many aspects. It is bounded by the Great Himalayas in the north, extends southwards covering Tropic of Cancer ultimately meets into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal on the east (east coast) and the Arabian Sea on the west (west coast). Both the coasts cover the Peninsular India and the Deccan Plateau. The mainland extends between Latitudes 8° 4′ and 37° 6′ North,

Longitudes 68° 7′ and 97° 25′ East and measures about 3214 km from North to South between the extreme Latitudes and about 2933 km from East to West between the extreme Longitudes. It has a land frontier of about 15,200 km. The total length of the coastline of the mainland, Lakshadweep Islands and Andaman & Nicobar Islands is 7516.6 km [1, 2].

There are several vector-borne diseases (VBDs) in India and most of them are transmitted by mosquitoes. These are malaria, LF, JE, DEN, CHIK and Zika. Sandfly-linked diseases are KA and CHPV, while KFD and CCHF by ticks, and ST by mites, while Plague by fleas mostly from rodent hosts. The vectors and the VBD control operations and preventions are implemented by the National Vector Borne Disease Control Program (NVBDCP) and National Centre for disease Control (NCDC) at national level. Many other national institutes under the aegis of Indian Council of Medical Research, Department of Biotechnology and Indian Council of Agricultural Research additionally support the program by doing research on these diseases. The research findings help in implementing the control of all VBDs. The respective state health departments implement the program following the guidelines provided by the NVBDCP. At present malaria, LF and KA are in the process of elimination; malaria by 2030 and the latter two diseases by 2020. A detailed action plan and proper implementation protocols are needed for achieving the goals.
