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Development Team Prof Dr. Sunil Mittal C l University of P Paper No: 03 Biodiversity and Conservation Module: 04 Current Status of Biodiversity in India Development Team Prof. R.K. Kohli Principal Investigator & Prof. V.K. Garg & Prof. Ashok Dhawan Co- Principal Investigator Central University of Punjab, Bathinda Dr Sunil Mittal Paper Coordinator Central University of Punjab, Bathinda Dr Sunil Mittal Content Writer Central University of Punjab, Bathinda Content Reviewer Prof. V. K. Garg Central University of Punjab, Bathinda Anchor Institute Central University of Punjab Paper 03 Biodiversity and Conservation Environmental Sciences Module 04 Current Status of Biodiversity in India Description of Module Subject Name Environmental Sciences Paper Name Biodiversity and Conservation Module Name/Title Current status of Biodiversity in India Module Id EVS/BC-III/04 Pre-requisites Objectives To learn about status of biodiversity in India Keywords Biodiversity, Plant, animal, wetlands, climate change Paper 03 Biodiversity and Conservation Environmental Sciences Module 04 Current Status of Biodiversity in India Module 04: Current Status of Biodiversity in India 1. Introduction 2. Biodiversity hotspots 3. Animal Biodiversity 4. Plant Biodiversity 5. Marine Biodiversity 6. Endemism Species 7. Fish Biodiversity 8. Critically endangered Species in India in India 9. Agricultural crops and domesticated animal biodiversity 10. Biodiversity Conservation in India 11. Wetlands in India 12. GovernmentActs 13. Other Initiatives Paper 03 Biodiversity and Conservation Environmental Sciences Module 04 Current Status of Biodiversity in India 1. Introduction Biodiversity constitutes the most important working component of a natural ecosystem. It helps to maintain ecological processes and deals with the degree of nature’s 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). 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. Table 1: Comparison between the Number of Species in India & the World Group Number of Number of (%) India Species in India Species in the World Mammals 350 4627 7.6 Birds 1224 9702 12.6 Reptiles 408 6550 6.2 Amphibians 197 4522 4.4 Fishes 2546 21,730 11.7 Flowering Plants 15,000 2,50,000 6 (Source: Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science http://ces.iisc.ernet.in) 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. Paper 03 Biodiversity and Conservation Environmental Sciences Module 04 Current Status of Biodiversity in India 2. Biodiversity hotspots 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: a) Himalaya: Comprises the entire Indian Himalayan region (and that falling in Pakistan, Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, China and Myanmar) b) Indo-Burma: Contains entire North-eastern India, except Assam and Andaman group of Islands (and Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and southern China) c) Sundalands: Includes Nicobar group of Islands (and Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Philippines) d) Western Ghats and Sri Lanka: Includes entire Western Ghats (and Sri Lanka) 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’s 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. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, founded in 1964, is the world’s 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. Extinct (EX) – No known individuals remaining Extinct in the Wild (EW) – Known only to survive in captivity, or as a naturalized population outside its historic range Critically Endangered (CR) – Extremely high risk of extinction in the wild Endangered (EN) – High risk of extinction in the wild. Vulnerable (VU) – High risk of endangerment in the wild Near Threatened (NT) – Likely to become endangered in the near future Least Concern (LC) or Lowest risk - Does not qualify for a more at risk category. Paper 03 Biodiversity and Conservation Environmental Sciences Module 04 Current Status of Biodiversity in India 3. Animal Biodiversity India has over 6.7% of the total animal species of the world. This includes approximately 96,373 known animal species and 63,423 insect species. The number of threatened fauna species in different categories and those listed in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN 2014-15) are given in Figure 1& 2. Extinct Critically endengered Endengered Near Threatened Vulnerable lower risk Least Concern 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 Number of Species Figure 1: Representation of evaluated Indian fauna (n = 4681) under IUCN (2014-15) Threat categories (Source: India's Fifth National Report to the Convention on Biological Diversity, MoEF, GOI) Other Mammals Molluscs Fishes Amphibians Name of Species Reptiles Birds 0 50 100 150 200 250 Number of Species Figure 2: Indian threatened fauna (Source: India's Fifth National Report to the Convention on Biological Diversity, MoEF, GOI) Paper 03 Biodiversity and Conservation Environmental Sciences Module 04 Current Status of Biodiversity in India 4. Plant Biodiversity With an estimated 29,105 species of algae, bryophytes, pteridophytes, gymnosperms and angiosperms, India holds 9.13% of the world's known floral diversity in these groups. The richness of Indian plant species as compared with the world is shown in Table 2 & risks categories are depicted in Figure 3. Table 2: Indian plant species as compared with the world India World % India Algae 7244 40800 17.75 Bryophytes 2504 14500 17.27 Pteridophytes 1267 12000 10.56 Gymnosperms 74 650 11.38 Angiosperms 17926 250000 7.17 Total 29015 317950 9.13 (Source: India's Fifth National Report to the Convention on Biological Diversity, MoEF, GOI) Least concern Lower Risk Near Threatened Vulnerable Endangered Critically Endangered Extinct in the wild Extinct 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 No of Species Figure 3: Representation of evaluated Indian flora (n = 1218) under IUCN (2014-15) threat categories (Source: India's Fifth National Report to the Convention on Biological Diversity, MoEF, GOI) Paper 03 Biodiversity and Conservation Environmental Sciences Module 04 Current Status of Biodiversity in India 5. Marine Biodiversity India’s coastal and marine areas hold many biological treasures. Dense mangrove forest of Sunder-bans, world’s largest congregations of nesting turtles in Odisha, beautiful seagrass beds in Palk Bay, dolphins & dugongs in the Gulf of Mannar, majestic whale sharks in the Gulf of Kachchh are the just a few examples of the treasures of India’s coastal and marine biodiversity. The marine floral and faunal biodiversity of India is remarkable, with over 200 diatom species, 90 dinoflagellates, 844 marine algae, 560 species of corals, 39 mangrove species, more than 10,000 invertebrate species and 2,500 vertebrate species. 6. Endemism Species in India In terms of endemism of vertebrate groups, India's global ranking is 10th in birds with 69 species, fifth in reptiles with 156 species and 7th in amphibians with 110 species. Endemism is manifested most prominently in the Indian fauna among the Amphibia (61.2%) and Reptilia (47%). It is estimated that 62% of the known amphibian species are endemic to India, of which a majority are found in the Western Ghats (Source: http://www.vigyanprasar.gov.in). Endemism in plants is significant across different plant groups in India. India accommodates 47 families, 141 genera and about 4045 species of flowering plants (angiosperms). These are distributed in the floristically rich areas of North- east India, the Western Ghats, the North-west Himalaya and
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