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Biogeographic classification of India
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Frontispiece to Alfred Russel Wallace's book The Geographical Distribution of Animals
Biogeographic classification of India is the division of India according to biogeographic characteristics. Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species (biology), organisms, and ecosystems in geographic space and through geological time. India has a rich heritage of natural diversity. India ranks fourth in Asia and tenth in the world amongst the top 17 mega-diverse countries in the world.[1] India harbours nearly 11% of the world’s floral diversity comprising over 17500 documented flowering plants, 6200 endemic species, 7500 medicinal plants and 246 globally threatened species in only 2.4% of world’s land area.[2] India is also home to four biodiversity hotspots—Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Eastern Himalaya, Indo-Burma region, and the Western Ghats.[3] Hence the importance of biogeographical study of India's natural heritage.
The first initiative to classify the forests of India was done by Champion in 1936 and revised by Seth in 1968.[4] This was followed by pioneering work on India's biogeography by MS Mani in 1974.[5] Numerous schemes divide India into biogeographic regions as part of global schemes based on varying parameters, e.g. the Global 200 scheme of the Worldwide Fund for Nature. In addition, ongoing research focusing on particular taxa have included biogeographic aspects particular to the taxa under study and the area under consideration.
Rogers and Panwar of the Wildlife Institute of India outlined a scheme to divide India zoogeographically in 1988 while planning a protected area network for India. Similarly the Forest Survey of India has issued an atlas of forest vegetation types in 2011 based on Champion & Seth (1968).[6] However, there is no official scheme mandated by the Government of India, as has been issued by the European Environment Agency in the case of the European Union.[7]
Biogeographic realms Edit
The territory of India falls in two of the 8 biogeographic realms of the world — The Palearctic realm and the Indomalayan realm.
Nearctic
Palearctic
Afrotropic
Indomalaya
Australasia
Neotropic
Oceania and Antarctic ecozones not shown.
At the broadest level, referred to as realm in Udvardy (1975),[8] and as ecozone by the World Wide Fund Global 200 (as described in Olsen et al. (2001)),[9] all of India falls in the Indomalayan realm, with the exception of the Himalayas above the adjoining foothills to the south, which fall in the Palearctic realm.
All the territory of India, with the exception of the Himalayas above and beyond the foothills to the south fall in the Indomalayan realm. Most of India falls in the "Indian Subcontinent" bioregion of the Indomalayan realm, which covers most of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka. The Hindu Kush, Karakoram, Himalaya, and Patkai ranges bound the bioregion on the northwest, north, and northeast; these ranges were formed by the collision of the northward-drifting Indian subcontinent with Asia beginning 45 million years ago. The Hindu Kush, Karakoram, and Himalaya are a major biogeographic boundary between the subtropical and tropical flora and fauna of the Indian subcontinent and the temperate-climate Palearctic realm.
The Nicobar islands on the other hand fall in the "Sundaland" bioregion of the Indo-Malayan realm.
The Himalayas proper form the southern limit of the Palearctic in South Asia, and here the Palearctic temperate forests transition to the subtropical and tropical forests of Indomalaya, creating a rich and diverse mix of plant and animal species.