BIODIVERSITY AT GLOBAL, NATIONAL AND LOCAL LEVEL.

BIODIVERSITY AT GLOBAL LEVEL.

Biodiversity is the measure of the variety of earth's animal, plant and microbial species; of genetic differences within species; and of the ecosystems that support the species.
Out of an estimated 30 million species on earth, only onesixth has been identified and authenticated in the past 200 years. An estimated biodiversity covers 400,000 higher plants..

 Countries

with diversities higher than India are located in South America such as Brazil, and South East Asian countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia. The species found in these countries, are different from our own.

Between

seven and nine million square kilometers of tropical rain forests, covering large tracts of Central America, the Amazon basin and the Guiana's, West Africa and Zaire, South East Asia, New Guinea and the islands of Melanesia are estimated to be there on the face of the earth.

TROPICAL FORESTS

The tropical forests are regarded as the richest in biodiversity. Species diversity in tropics is high. The reasons are as follows: 1. Warm temperate and high humidity provide favorable conditions for many species. 2. Tropical communities are more productive because these areas receive more solar energy. 3. Over geographical times the tropics have had a more stable climate. In tropics, therefore, local species continued to live there itself. 4. Among plant rates of out crossing appear to be higher in tropics.

RAINFORESTS OF THE WORLD

HUMAN IMPACT ON BIODIVERSITY

In Central America, two-thirds of the forests have already disappeared. In Columbia, it has been cleared at the rate of a million hectares a year. The tragic story of the rain forests in Brazil is no different. Tropical rain forests of Brazil are the greatest, most enduring celebrations of life ever to have evolved on this planet. No other environment has so many species of plant and animal life.

Throughout the world, the value of biologically rich natural areas is now being increasingly appreciated as being of unimaginable value. International agreements such as the World Heritage Convention attempt are implemented to protect and support such areas.

CONSERVATION

It is important to preserve the numerous varieties of plants and animals that belong to one species. Each variety within a species contains unique genes and the diversity of genes within a species increases its capacity to adopt to pollution disease and other changes in the environment. Conservation Projects are as Follows : United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (1992) and Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety; Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES); Ramsar Convention(Wetlands); Bonn Convention on Migratory Species; World Heritage Convention (indirectly by protecting biodiversity habitats) Regional Conventions such as the Apia Convention Bilateral agreements such as the Japan-Australia Migratory Bird Agreement.

TOP 17 MEGA-DIVERSITY COUNTRIES.

Australia Brazil China Colombia Democratic Republic of the Congo Ecuador India Indonesia Madagascar Malaysia Mexico Papua New Guinea Peru Philippines South Africa United States Venezuela

INDIA AS A MEGA DIVERSITY NATION

How Biodiversity developed in India?

Geological events in the landmass of India have provided conditions for high levels of biological diversity. A split in the single giant continent around 70 million years ago, led to the formation of northern and southern continents, with India a part of Gondwanaland - the southern landmass, together with Africa, Australia and the Antarctic. Later tectonic movements shifted India northward across the equator to join the Northern Eurasian continent. As the intervening shallow Tethis Sea closed down, plants and animals that had evolved both in Europe and in the Far East migrated into India before the Himalayas had formed. A final influx came from Africa with Ethiopian species, which, were adapted to the Savannas and semi-arid regions. Thus Indias special geographical position between three distinctive centres of biological evolution and radiation of species is responsible for our rich and varied biodiversity.

India's rich biological diversity - its immense range of ecosystems, species and genetic forms is by virtue of its tropical location, climate and physical features.

India's biogeographical composition is unique as it combines living forms from three major bio geographical realms, namely - Eurasian, Agro-Tropical and IndoMalayan.

India's fabulous biodiversity is estimated to be over 45,000 plant species representing about seven percent of the world's flora; and its bewildering variety of animal life represents 6.5 per cent of world's fauna. 15,000 species of flowering plants, 53,430 species of insects; 5050 species of mollusks, 6,500 species of other invertebrates; 2,546 species of fishes; 1228 species of birds, 446 species of reptiles, 372 species of mammals and 204 species of amphibians have been identified.

Indian flora comprises about 15,000 flowering plants and bulk of our rich flora is to be found in the Northeast, Western Ghats, the Northwest and Eastern Himalayas, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It is home to lions, tigers, leopards, snow leopards, black panthers, cheetahs, wolves, foxes, bears, crocodiles, rhinoceroses, c amels, dogs, monkeys, snakes, antelope species, deer species, varieties of bison and not to mention the mighty Asian elephant.

CONSERVATION

To preserve our rich biodiversity, nine biosphere reserves are set up in specific biogeographic'' zones: the biggest one is in the Deccan Peninsula in the Nilgiris covering Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Others are the Nanda Devi in Uttar khand in the Western Himalayas, the Nokrek in Meghalaya, Manas and Dibru Saikhowa in Assam, the Sunderban's in the Gangetic plain in West Bengal, Similar in Orissa, the Great Nicobar and the Gulf of Mannar in Tamil Nadu.

COMPARISON BETWEEN THE NUMBER OF SPECIES IN INDIA AND THE WORLD Group Number of Species in India(SI) 350 1224 408 197 2546 15000 Number of Species in the world(SW) 4629 9702 6550 4522 21730 250000 SI/SW(%)

Mammals Birds Reptiles Amphibians Fishes Flowering Plants

7.6 12.6 6.2 4.4 11.7 6.0

India is a signatory to the convention and has included several protected Areas as World Heritage sites.

These include Manas on the border between Bhutan and India, Kaziranga in Assam, Bharatpur in U.P., Nandadevi in the Himalayas, and the Sunderbans in the Ganges delta in West Bengal.
India has also signed the Convention in the Trade of Endangered Species (CITES) which is intended to reduce the utilization of endangered plants and animals by controlling trade in their products and in the pet trade.

BUTTERFLIES OF INDIA

BIRDS OF INDIA

AMPHIBIANS

FISHES

FLOWERING PLANTS