Question

I want to know about biodiversity of india.....and the peface as well

Answer 1

Answer:

Introduction to Biodiversity:

India is one of the world’s most biologically and culturally diverse countries. It is also one of the poorest in terms of per capita income.

The exist­ence of mass poverty on an enormous scale lies upon two important facts: first that the country exports natural products that command high prices in overseas markets, such as basmati rice and Darjeeling tea, as well as products like medicinal and aromatic plants that are major inputs in rap­idly expanding industries; and second that India has achieved significant capabilities in industrial chemistry and the life sciences

India is one of the world’s ‘mega diversity’ countries. It is ranked ninth in the world in terms of higher plant species richness. At the ecosystem level, India is also well-endowed, with ten distinct biogeographic zones.

It also contains two of the world’s 25 biodiversity hotspots, because of their extraordinarily high levels of species-richness and endemicity, and threatened status.

India is considered to be the centre of origin for the following crop species pigeon pea, egg plant cucumber, possibly cotton and sesame. But for millennia, numerous other crop species have been introduced to India and adapted to localised conditions.

As a consequence of both the diver­sity of these conditions and of the various eth­nic populations living in India, the country has become an important centre of diversity of a great many domesticated species, including vari­ous cereals, millets, legumes, vegetables, temper­ate and tropical fruits, fibre crops, medicinal and aromatic plants.

India’s biodiversity is threatened by the de­struction and degradation of ecosystems and by over exploitation of species.

More specifically, the threats are inter alia due to the following:

1. Large-scale development projects such as min­ing and dam and road construction.

2. Conversion of biodiversity-rich ecosystems, such as tropical forests to farmlands and in­dustrial and residential sites.

3. Poaching of wildlife and over-harvesting of forest products.

While there has been no comprehensive as­sessment of biodiversity loss, three of four mam­mal species have been lost since 1950, and so also 15-20 plant species have become extinct. By and large over ten per cent of India’s flowering plant species are threatened with extinction. Of par­ticular seriousness is the loss of agro-biodiversity.

In one district of the state of Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal, 95 percent of rice vari­eties previously cultivated are no longer found. Although the causes are various, this situation is primarily due to the replacement of low-input poly-cultural agricultural systems with higher-in­put monocultures.

India as Mega Diversity Nation:

India has tremendous biodiversity, genetic as well as of species and ecosystems. It contains over 7 per cent of the world’s biodiversity on 2.5 per cent of the Earth’s surface. This diversity can be at­tributed to the vast variety of landforms and cli­mates resulting in habitats ranging from tropical to temperate, and from alpine to desert.

The number of plant species in India is esti­mated to be over 45,523 representing about 11.8 per cent of the world’s flora. These include over 17,500 flowering plants of which 4,950 species are endemic to the country.

It is estimated that 32% of Indian plants are endemic to the country and found nowhere else in the world. Among the plant species the flower­ing plants have a much higher degree of endemism, a third of these are not found elsewhere in the world.

Among amphibians found in India, 62% are unique to this country. Among lizards, of the 153 species recorded, 50% are endemic. High endemism has also been recorded for various groups of insects, marine worms, centipedes, may­flies and fresh water sponges.

India is also considered as one of the world’s eight centers of origin of cultivated plants. India has 51 species of cereals and millets, 104 species of fruits, 27 species of spices and condiments, 55 species of vegetables and pulses, 24 species of fi­ber crops, 12 species of soil seeds, and various wild strains of tea, coffee, tobacco and sugarcane.

Several hundred species of wild crop relatives are also distributed all over the country, especially in the western and eastern Himalayas, the West­ern Ghats and the Malabar Coast, north-eastern India, the Gangetic plain, and in the eastern part of the Deccan Plateau which is a major center for wild rice, Citrus Indica, the most primitive species of citrus plants, is found in the Tura hills in Meghalaya