Biodiversity Hot Spots

Biodiversity hotspots are a method to identify those regions of the world where attention
is needed to address biodiversity loss and to guide investments in conservation. The idea was
first developed by Norman Myers in 1988 to identify tropical forest ‘hotspots’ characterized
both by exceptional levels of plant endemism and serious habitat loss, which he then
expanded to a more global scope. Conservation International adopted Myers’ hotspots as its
institutional blueprint in 1989, and in 1999, the organization undertook an extensive global
review which introduced quantitative thresholds for the designation of biodiversity
hotspots. A reworking of the hotspots analysis in 2004 resulted in the system in place
today. Currently, 36 biodiversity hotspots have been identified, most of which occur in
tropical forests. They represent just 2.3% of Earth’s land surface, but between them they
contain around 50% of the world’s endemic plant species and 42% of all terrestrial
vertebrates. Overall, Hotspots have lost around 86% of their original habitat and additionally
are considered to be significantly threatened by extinctions induced by climate change.
To qualify as a hotspot, a region must meet two criteria:

 it must contain at least 1,500 species of vascular plants (> 0.5% of the world’s total)
as endemics;
 it has to have lost ≥ 70% of its original native habitat.

Coverage of biodiversity hot spot is global in extent. New biodiversity hotspots are
periodically added based on scientific assessments of new regions. For example, the North
American Coastal Plain (NACP) (2016) is latest hotspot to have been added after research
showed that the area fulfilled all criteria. Changing circumstances such as sustained habitat
loss or the discovery of new species may mean that areas previously not considered
biodiversity hotspots could qualify in a future re-assessment.

There are 36 such hot spots of biodiversity on a global level, out of which
two are present in India. These are:
 Indo- Burma (earlier The Eastern Himalayas) and
 The western Ghats & Sri Lanka
These hot spots covering less than 2% of the world’s land area are found to
have about 50% of the terrestrial biodiversity.

Himalaya: Includes the entire Indian Himalayan region (and that falling in Pakistan, Tibet,
Nepal, Bhutan, China and Myanmar)

Sundalands: Includes Nicobar group of Islands (and Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei,
Philippines)
Indo- Burma (Eastern Himalayas) Hotspot:
 The hotspot includes all of Cambodia, Vietnam & Laos, and nearly the
entire areas of Thailand, Myanmar & Bhutan as well as part of Nepal,
far eastern India and extreme southern China.
 In addition, it covers several offshore Islands including Mainan
Islands in the South China Sea and Andaman & Nicobar Islands in
Indian Ocean.
 Indo-Burma is one of the most threatened biodiversity hotspots, due
to the rate of resource exploitation and habitat loss.

Western Ghats and Sri Lanka:

 Western Ghats and Sri Lanka, also known as the “Sahyadri Hills”
encompasses the mountain forests in the south-western parts of India
and on the neighbouring Islands of Sri Lanka.
 The entire extent of hotspot was originally about 1,82,500 km 2, but
due to tremendous population pressure, now only 12,445 square Km
or 6.8% is in pristine condition.
 The important populations include Asian elephant, Indian tigers and
the endangered lion tailed macaque.

India as a Mega Diversity Nation

A mega-diverse country is one that harbors the majority of the Earth’s species and is
therefore considered extremely biodiverse. India is rich in biodiversity from north to south
and from east to west. India contains many species that world’s gone country have. It has 14
major basins through which drain numerous rivers. The annual rainfall varies from less than
37 cm in Rajasthan to 1500 m in Cherapunji. The country experiences three different seasons
– winter, summer, and monsoons. It has two global terrestrial biodiversity hot spots – the
North-eastern States and the Western Ghats. The Western Ghats have moist deciduous forests
and rainforests. The region shows high species diversity as well as high levels of endemism.
Around 62% of reptile and 77% of amphibians are found in here. The North-eastern States
depicts high altitudinal variations. This area has at least 163 globally threatened species like
one-horned rhinoceros and the wild Asian water buffalo. The Relict Dragonfly, an
endangered species found here. This zone houses the “Himalayan Newt” the only
salamander species found within Indian limits.
The great variety of ecological conditions prevailing in India, tropical location, climate
and physical features all aid in supporting an enormous diversity of wildlife, including, hot
desert forms, like wild ass and the cold desert forms, like the Tibetan antelope: animals of
open scrubland, like the black buck and of grassy swamps, like the rhinoceros; animals of the
deciduous forests like the wild gaur and of the tropical rainforests, like the lion-tailed
macaque. India’s bio-geographical composition is unique as it combines living forms from
three major bio-geographical realms, namely – Eurasian, Agro-Tropical, and Indo-Malayan.
India lies at the confluence of Ethiopian, Palaearctic, and Indo-Malayan faunas and possesses
some interesting components. The chinkara, the hyena, and the rates represent the Ethiopian
element; the lynx, wolf, hangul represent the Palaearctic; the Chinese by red panda and the
musk-deer; the Indo-Malayan by the hoolock gibbon, the goat-antelope, and the mouse deer.
The endemic varieties include sloth bear, antelope or black buck, four-horned antelope and
Boselaphus or nilgai.
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. India’s biodiversity is estimated to be over 45,000 plant species representing about
7% of the world’s flora and India stands tenth in 25 most plant-rich countries of the world. Its
variety of animal life represents 6.5 per cent of world’s fauna. Being one of the oldest and
largest agriculture societies, India has at least 166 species of crop plants and 320 species of
wild relatives of cultivated crops. The vegetation ranges from xerophytic in Rajasthan,
evergreen in the North-East and the Ghat areas, mangroves of coastal regions, conifers of the
hills and the dry deciduous forests of central India to alpine pastures in the high reaches of
the Himalaya. The forests India have been classified into 16 types and 251 subtypes by
climatic and edaphic conditions. The country has many alternative medicines, like Ayurveda,
Unani, Siddha and Homeopathic systems that are mainly prepared from plant-based raw
materials. Herbal preparations for pharmaceutical and cosmetic purposes form part of the
traditional biodiversity uses in India.
It has great marine diversity due to its 7500 km long coastline. The near shore coastal
waters of India are extremely rich fishing grounds. The marine environment of India supports
coral reefs in the Gulf of Kutch, off the southern mainland coast, and around some islands
opposite Sri Lanka. Indian coral reefs’ resources are of high commercial value. On the Gulf
of Mannar and Gulf of Kutch reefs corals, coral debris and coral sands are widely exploited,
and ornamental shells, sharks, and pearl oysters are the basis of an important reef industry in
the south of India. Five species of marine turtle occur in Indian waters: Green turtle Chelonia
mydas, Loggerhead Caretta caretta, Olive RidleyLepidochelys olive, Hawksbill Eretmochelys
imbricate, and Leatherback Dermochelys coriacea. Seagrass beds are important feeding areas
for the Dugong dugon, plus several species of marine turtle.
To preserve the rich biodiversity, nine biosphere reserves have been set up in specific
biogeographic” zones: the biggest being in the Deccan Peninsula in the Nilgiris covering
Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka. Others include the Nanda Devi in Uttarakhand
in the Western Himalayas, the Nokrek in Meghalaya, Manas, and Dibru Saikhowa in Assam,
the Sunderbans in the Gangetic plain in West Bengal, Similar in Orissa, the Great Nicobar
and the Gulf of Mannar in Tamil Nadu. As per satellite imaging, about 19 percent of the land
area of the country comprise of forests. It has 80 national parks at present, which houses the
largest number of tigers and one-horned rhinos found in the world, Asiatic lions and a large
percent of elephants. Six significant wetland areas of India have been declared as “Ramsar
Sites” under the Ramsar Convention. Under the World Heritage Convention, five natural sites
have been declared as “World Heritage Sites.”
 There is a vital, but often neglected factor when we focus on biodiversity. It may be a
matter of surprise to understand that the tribal people who officially constitute 7.5 percent of
India’s population have preserved around 90 percent of the country’s biocultural diversity. To
a large extent, the survival of our biodiversity depends on how best the tribal are looked after.
India accredited the International Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) on 18 February 1994
and became Party to the Convention in May 1994. The CBD is an international legal
instrument for fostering conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity and the fair
and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from commercial and other utilization of genetic
resources. It is the responsibility of The Ministry of Environment and Forest in India to
oversee environmental policy and procedures and the administration of the national parks of
the country as well. India has worked on creating ‘landscape conversion’ that include wildlife
reserves, communal forest, and some private lands.

All these factors and many more is the reason behind why India is called a mega
biodiversity centre and makes it one of the seventeen mega biodiversity countries of the
world.