Mammal covering India (5)
I believe the answer is:
coati
'mammal' is the definition.
(coati is a kind of mammal)
'covering india' is the wordplay.
'covering' becomes 'coat' (coat is a kind of covering).
'india' becomes 'i' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.).
'coat'+'i'='COATI'
(Other definitions for coati that I've seen before include "Flesh-eating mammal" , "Raccoon relative" , "South American animal" , "omnivorous mammal" , "American denizen" .)