{"id":47,"date":"2019-03-05T11:27:13","date_gmt":"2019-03-05T11:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/esp03.epgpbooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/?post_type=chapter&p=47"},"modified":"2022-01-07T10:57:36","modified_gmt":"2022-01-07T10:57:36","slug":"current-status-of-biodiversity-in-india","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/esp03\/chapter\/current-status-of-biodiversity-in-india\/","title":{"rendered":"Current Status of Biodiversity in India"},"content":{"raw":"
\"epgp<\/a>\r\n<\/span><\/div>\r\n
\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n1.\u00a0 <\/strong>Introduction<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>\r\n\r\n2.\u00a0 <\/strong>Biodiversity hotspots<\/strong>\r\n\r\n3.\u00a0 <\/strong>Animal <\/strong>Biodiversity<\/strong>\r\n\r\n4.\u00a0 <\/strong>Plant Biodiversity<\/strong>\r\n\r\n5.\u00a0 <\/strong>Marine Biodiversity<\/strong>\r\n\r\n6.\u00a0 <\/strong>Endemism Species<\/strong>\r\n\r\n7.\u00a0 <\/strong>Fish Biodiversity<\/strong>\r\n\r\n8. Critically endangered Species in India in India<\/strong>\r\n\r\n9.\u00a0 <\/strong>Agricultural crops and domesticated animal biodiversity<\/strong>\r\n\r\n10.\u00a0 <\/strong>Biodiversity Conservation in India<\/strong>\r\n\r\n11.\u00a0 <\/strong>Wetlands <\/strong>in India<\/strong>\r\n\r\n12.\u00a0 <\/strong>GovernmentActs<\/strong>\r\n\r\n13.\u00a0 <\/strong>Other Initiatives<\/strong>\r\n\r\n\u00a0<\/strong>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
\r\n\r\n1. Introduction<\/strong>\r\n

Biodiversity constitutes the most important working component of a natural ecosystem. It helps to maintain ecological processes and deals with the degree of nature\u2019s variety in the biosphere. The term biodiversity was first coined by Water & Rosen in 1985. Biodiversity refers to the variability among living organisms and constitute terrestrial, marine, aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes. It reflects the number, variety & variability of living organisms and includes diversity within species (genetic diversity), between species (species diversity) and between ecosystems (ecosystem diversity).<\/p>\r\n

India is a mega diverse country having only 2.4% of the world's land area but accommodates 7-8% species of flora and fauna. It includes more than 45,000 species of plants and 91,000 species of animals. It is situated at the tri-junction of the Afro-tropical, Indo-Malayan and Palearctic realms, all of these support rich biodiversity. India is a diverse nation, which has 10 biogeographic zones. A comparison of status of biodiversity between Indian and World scenario is depicted in Table 1<\/strong>.<\/p>\r\n

Table 1: Comparison between the Number of Species in India & the World<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Group<\/strong><\/td>\r\nNumber of\u00a0Species in India<\/strong><\/td>\r\nNumber of\u00a0Species in the\u00a0World<\/strong><\/td>\r\n(%) India<\/strong><\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Mammals<\/td>\r\n350<\/td>\r\n4627<\/td>\r\n7.6<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Birds<\/td>\r\n1224<\/td>\r\n9702<\/td>\r\n12.6<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Reptiles<\/td>\r\n408<\/td>\r\n6550<\/td>\r\n6.2<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Amphibians<\/td>\r\n197<\/td>\r\n4522<\/td>\r\n4.4<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Fishes<\/td>\r\n2546<\/td>\r\n21,730<\/td>\r\n11.7<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Flowering Plants<\/td>\r\n15,000<\/td>\r\n2,50,000<\/td>\r\n6<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n

(Source: Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science http:\/\/ces.iisc.ernet.in)<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

India is also a recognized center of crop diversity and produces hundreds of varieties of crop plants such as rice, maize, millets etc. The diverse physical features and climatic conditions of India are responsible for a variety of ecosystems such as forests, grasslands, wetlands, deserts, coastal and marine ecosystems.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n2. Biodiversity hotspots<\/strong>\r\n

The idea of hotspots was first given by ecologist Norman Myers in 1988. Biodiversity hotspot is a biogeographic region that contains significant reservoir of biodiversity and is under threat & destruction. The main criteria for determining a hotspot are endemism (the presence of species found nowhere else on earth) and degree of threat. India has four hotspots out of 34 identified globally (Conservation International 2013), which are follows:<\/p>\r\n\r\n

    \r\n \t
  1. a) Himalaya: <\/strong>Comprises the entire Indian Himalayan region (and that falling in Pakistan, Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, China and Myanmar)<\/li>\r\n \t
  2. b) Indo-Burma: <\/strong>Contains entire North-eastern India, except Assam and Andaman group of Islands (and Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and southern China)<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t
  3. c) Sundalands: <\/strong>Includes Nicobar group of Islands (and Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Philippines)<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t
  4. d) Western Ghats and Sri Lanka: <\/strong>Includes entire Western Ghats (and Sri Lanka)<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n \r\n

    The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is a leading international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. It was established in 1948 and evolved as world\u2019s largest environment network and plays a key role to save biodiversity at global level. IUCN includes over 1400 members of both governmental and non-governmental organizations. The IUCN publishes IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In 1969, India became a State Member of IUCN. The Office of IUCN India located in New Delhi was established in 2007.<\/p>\r\n

    The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, founded in 1964, is the world\u2019s most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biological species. As per the relative risk of extinction, the red data list contains 7 categories. There are categories given below along with some Indian species.<\/p>\r\n\r\n