BIODIVERSITY

Definition
• ‘Biological diversity’ means the variability among living
organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial,
marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological
complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity
within species, between species and of ecosystems.
Elements of Biodiversity
• Genetic Diversity - This genetic variability is essential for a
healthy breeding population of a species. If the number of
breeding individuals is reduced, the dissimilarity of genetic
makeup is reduced and in-breeding occurs. Eventually this can
can lead to the extinction of the species.
Elements of Biodiversity
Elements of Biodiversity
• Species Diversity - The number of species of plants and
animals that are present in a region constitutes its species
diversity.
Elements of Biodiversity
Elements of Biodiversity
• Ecological Diversity - Ecosystem diversity can be
described for a specific geographical region, or a political
entity such as a country, a State or a taluka.
Elements of Biodiversity
Elements of Biodiversity
Elements of Biodiversity
• Functional Diversity - The way species behave, obtain
food and use the natural resources of an ecosystem is
known as functional diversity.
Bottleneck Effect
• Population decreases, genetic
diversity decreases
• Bottleneck Effect
• Even if population is able to
increase again, an inbreeding
within a smaller variety of genes
will occur.
• Population members may be more
likely to inherit genetic diseases
Why are Insects Important?
Why are Insects Important?
Importance of Biodiversity
• Maintaining balance of the ecosystem
• Provision of biological resources
• Social benefits
• Biodiversity and food
• Biodiversity and human health
• Biodiversity and industry
• Biodiversity and culture
Measurement of Biodiversity
Components of Measurement
• The number of entities
• The degree of difference (dissimilarity) between those
entities
Indices of Measurement
1. Species richness indices
2. Evenness indices
3. Taxonomic indices
Scales of Diversity
1. Alpha diversity
2. Beta diversity
3. Gamma diversity
Why Species Richness
1. Practical application
2. Existing information
3. Surrogacy
4. Wide application
Limitations of Species Richness
• Definition of species
• Different kinds of diversity
Evolution and Origin of Biodiversity

• Mutation
• Natural Selection
How many species in the world?
Problems in counting
• New estimates usually fail to take previous work into account.
• Many live in inaccessible habitats (such as the deep sea), are
too small to see, are hard to find, or live inside other living
things.
• Many of these past estimates used multiple different
techniques to arrive at their estimates, including extrapolations
based on the density of species in a study area or the rate at
which new species are being discovered and described.
• A more fundamental problem with counting species comes
down to a somewhat philosophical issue: biologists do not
agree on what the term “species” actually means.
Diversity on Land vs Diversity in
Water
• There are many more
different environments on
land than in the oceans. This
will lead to increased
diversity, and subsequently 15%

more species. 5% Land

Freshwater

• Insects make up a good Oceans

portion of total number of

species, but are virtually
80%

absent from marine

environments
Biodiversity Hotspots
To qualify as a biodiversity hotspot, a region must meet
two strict criteria:
• Contain at least 1,500 species of vascular plants found
nowhere else on Earth (known as "endemic" species).
• Have lost at least 70 percent of its primary native
vegetation.
Biodiversity Hotspots
• Around the world, 36 areas qualify as hotspots.
• They represent just 2.4% of Earth’s land surface, but they
support more than half of the world’s plant species as
endemics — i.e., species found no place else — and
nearly 43% of bird, mammal, reptile and amphibian
species as endemics.
Importance of Hotspots
• Biodiversity underpins all life on Earth.
• The map of hotspots overlaps extraordinarily well with
the map of the natural places that most benefit people.
Is Focusing on "Hot Spots" the Key to
Preserving Biodiversity?
Criticism of Hotspots
• The approach is partly economic and it is based on the fact that it is
not possible to protect the full range of biodiversity since it would
certainly not be a realistic target.
• Some areas, despite being poorer for number of species, play an
important ecological role.
• Promoting biodiversity hotspots, as a “silver bullet” strategy for
conserving the most species for the least cost is a risk in complex
areas of international policy, such as biodiversity conservation,
because decision makers may view it as a cure-all.
• Biodiversity hotspots entirely ignore regions of ecological
transition.
Megadiverse Countries
• Megadiversity Countries is a term used to refer to the world’s top
biodiversity-rich countries.
• This country-focused method raises national awareness for
biodiversity conservation in nations with high biological diversity,
with many species unique to a specific country.
• This concept complements that of Biodiversity Hotspots and High-
Biodiversity Wilderness Areas to achieve significant coverage of the
world’s biological resources and was first proposed in 1988.
• Together, the Megadiversity Countries account for at least two
thirds of all non-fish vertebrate species and three quarters of all
higher plant species..
List of Megadiverse Countries
• Australia • India • Philippines
• Brazil • Indonesia • South Africa
• China • Madagascar • United States
• Colombia • Malaysia • Venezuela
• Democratic • Mexico
Republic of the • Papua New
Congo Guinea
• Ecuador • Peru
The Megadiversity Country concept is
based on four premises:
1. The biodiversity of each and every nation is critically important to that
nation’s survival, and must be a fundamental component of any national or
regional development strategy;
2. Biodiversity is by no means evenly distributed on our planet, and some
countries, especially in the tropics, harbour far greater concentrations of
biodiversity than others;
3. Some of the most species rich and biodiverse nations also
haveecosystems that are under the most severe threat;
4. To achieve maximum impact with limited resources, conservation efforts
must concentrate heavily (but not exclusively) on those countries richest in
diversity and endemism and most severely threatened; resources invested
in them for conservation should be roughly proportional to their overall
contribution to global biodiversity.
Criteria
1. Have at least 5000 of the world’s plants as endemics
2. Have marine ecosystems within its borders.

• Other secondary criteria have also been taken into

consideration, such as animal and invertebrate endemism,
species diversity, higher-level diversity, ecosystem
diversity and presence of tropical rainforest ecosystems.
Like Minded Megadiverse Countries
• The Like-Minded Megadiverse Countries (LMMC) is a group of countries that
harbour the majority of the Earth’s species and are therefore considered
extremely biodiverse.
• They are rich in biological diversity (60-70% of the world’s biodiversity) and
associated traditional knowledge.
• These countries have effectively joined efforts in negotiating the development of
the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable
Sharing of Benefits arising from their utilisation to the Convention on Biological
Diversity (CBD), which was adopted in Japan in 2010.
• These countries declared to set up a Group of Like-Minded Megadiverse
Countries as a mechanism for consultation and cooperation so that their interests
and priorities related to the preservation and sustainable use of biological
diversity could be promoted.
List of Like Minded Megadiverse
Countries
• Bolivia • Ecuador • Madagascar
• Brazil • Ethiopia • Malaysia
• China • Guatemala • Mexico
• Colombia • India • Peru
• Costa Rica • Indonesia • Philippines
• Democratic • Iran • South Africa
Republic of the • Kenya • Venezuela
Congo
Hope Spots
• Hope Spots are special places that are critical to the health of the ocean.
Hope Spots are often areas that need new protection, but they can also be
existing MPAs where more action is needed. They all provide hope due to:
• A special abundance or diversity of species, unusual or representative species,
habitats or ecosystems
• Particular populations of rare, threatened or endemic species
• A site with potential to reverse damage from negative human impacts
• The presence of natural processes such as major migration corridors or spawning
grounds
• Significant historical, cultural or spiritual values
• Particular economic importance to the community
• The idea is that anyone can nominate a site special to him or her—a site that
gives HOPE.
Extinction
• The overall change in biodiversity results from the
difference between rates of speciation (adding species)
and rates of extinction (taking species away).
• Over the history of life on Earth, in excess of 90% of all
species (and perhaps closer to 99%) are estimated to have
become extinct.
• Compared with the duration of life on Earth, no genus
survived for very long. The longest-lived persisted for
about 160 Myr, or about 5% of the history of life.
Extinction

Speciation Extinction
Mass Extinction
• A “mass extinction” can be defined as a time period in
which a large percentage of all known species living at the
time goes extinct, or is completely wiped out.
• There are several causes for mass extinctions such as
climate change, geologic catastrophes (such as large
amounts of volcanic eruptions), or even meteor strikes on
the Earth’s surface.
• There is even evidence to suggest that microbes may have
sped up or contributed to some of the mass extinctions
that are known throughout the Geologic Time Scale.
Major Mass Extinctions
The First Major Mass Extinction:
The Ordovician Mass Extinction
• When: The Ordovician Period
of the Paleozoic Era (about
440 million years ago)
• Size of the Extinction: Up to
85% of all living species at
the time were eliminated
• Suspected Cause or Causes:
Continental Drift and
subsequent climate change
The Second Major Mass Extinction:
The Devonian Mass Extinction
• When: The Devonian Period of
the Paleozoic Era (about 375
million years ago)
• Size of the Extinction: Nearly
80% of all living species at the
time were wiped out
• Suspected Cause or Causes:
Lack of oxygen in the oceans,
quick cooling of air
temperatures, possibly volcanic
eruptions and/or meteor strikes
The Third Major Mass Extinction:
The Permian Mass Extinction

• When: The Permian Period of

the Paleozoic Era (about 250
million years ago)
• Size of the Extinction: An
Estimated 96% of all species
living on Earth at the time
• Suspected Cause or Causes:
Unknown - Possibly asteroid
strikes, volcanic activity,
climate change, and
microbes.
The Fourth Major Mass Extinction:
The Triassic-Jurassic Mass Extinction
• When: At the end of the Triassic
Period of the Mesozoic Era
(about 200 million years ago)
• Size of the Extinction: More
than half of all known species
living at the time
• Suspected Cause or Causes:
Major volcanic activity with
basalt flooding, global climate
change, and changing pH and
sea levels of the oceans.
The Fifth Major Mass Extinction:
The K-T Mass Extinction
• When: At the end of the
Cretaceous Period of the
Mesozoic Era (about 65
million years ago)
• Size of the Extinction:
Nearly 75% of all known
species living at the time
• Suspected Cause or
Causes: Extreme asteroid
or meteor impact
Tardigrade (Water Bear)
• The water bear is the only animal to have survived all five
extinctions known to man.
• It can survive in temperatures as low as -200°C without
food or water, even the extreme radiation of space for
over a hundred years without any evident discomfort.
• It is less than 1.5 millimetres in length and over 500
million years old.
• The water bear, if needed, can replace almost all the water
in its body with a form of sugar known as trehalose,
making them immune to environments that would
otherwise kill anyone.
• It gets a staggering one-sixth of their genetics from
plants, bacteria, fungi and a thousand other species
including other tardigrades.
The Sixth Mass Extinction
• We are currently experiencing the worst spate of species die-
offs since the loss of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
• The current crisis is almost entirely caused by humans. 99
percent of currently threatened species are at risk from human
activities, primarily those driving habitat loss, introduction of
exotic species, and global warming.
• In the past 500 years, we know of approximately 1,000
species that have gone extinct.
• The IUCN has assessed roughly 3 percent of described species
and identified 16,928 species worldwide as being threatened
with extinction, or roughly 38 percent of those assessed.
Effect on Amphibians
• No group of animals has a higher rate of endangerment
than amphibians.
• Scientists estimate that a third or more of all the roughly
6,300 known species of amphibians are at risk of
extinction.
• The current amphibian extinction rate may range from
25,039 to 45,474 times the background extinction rate.
• Frogs, toads, and salamanders are disappearing because
of habitat loss, water and air pollution, climate change,
ultraviolet light exposure, introduced exotic species, and
disease.
BIRDS
• Declining bird populations across most to all habitats
confirm that profound changes are occurring on our
planet in response to human activities.
• BirdLife International estimates that 12 percent of known
9,865 bird species are now considered threatened, with
192 species, or 2 percent, facing an “extremely high risk”
of extinction in the wild — two more species than in
2008.
FISH
• Across the globe, 1,851 species of fish — 21 percent of
all fish species evaluated — were deemed at risk of
extinction by the IUCN in 2010, including more than a
third of sharks and rays.
INVERTEBRATES
• Invertebrates, from butterflies to mollusks to earthworms
to corals, are vastly diverse — and though no one knows
just how many invertebrate species exist, they're
estimated to account for about 97 percent of the total
species of animals on Earth.
• Of the 1.3 million known invertebrate species, the IUCN
has evaluated about 9,526 species, with about 30 percent
of the species evaluated at risk of extinction.
MAMMALS
• About 90 percent of primates — the group that contains monkeys,
lemurs, lorids, galagos, tarsiers, and apes (as well as humans) —
live in tropical forests, which are fast disappearing.
• The IUCN estimates that almost 50 percent of the world's primate
species are at risk of extinction.
• Overall, the IUCN estimates that half the globe's 5,491 known
mammals are declining in population and a fifth are clearly at risk
of disappearing forever with no less than 1,131 mammals across
the globe classified as endangered, threatened, or vulnerable.
• In addition to primates, marine mammals — including several
species of whales, dolphins, and porpoises — are among those
mammals slipping most quickly toward extinction.
PLANTS
• Of the more than 300,000 known species of plants, the
IUCN has evaluated only 12,914 species, finding that
about 68 percent of evaluated plant species are
threatened with extinction.
• Unlike animals, plants can't readily move as their habitat
is destroyed, making them particularly vulnerable to
extinction.
REPTILES
• Globally, 21 percent of the total evaluated reptiles in the
world are deemed endangered or vulnerable to extinction
by the IUCN — 594 species.
Keystone Species
• A keystone species is an organism that helps define an
entire ecosystem.
• Without its keystone species, the ecosystem would be
dramatically different or cease to exist altogether.
• If the species were to disappear from the ecosystem, no
other species would be able to fill its ecological niche.
IUCN Red List
LOSS OF BIODIVERSITY
Causes of the Loss
• Habitat Destruction
• Invasive Species
• Pollution
• Population
• Climate Change
• Overharvesting by hunting and fishing
Causes of the Loss
Causes of the Loss (H)
• Habitat Loss refers to the outright conversion of habitat to another
use, such as urban development or agriculture,
• Habitat Fragmentation refers to the breaking up of once continuous
habitat into a series of habitat patches amid a human-dominated
landscape.
• Habitat Degradation refers to changes that reduce the quality of the
habitat for many, but not all, species.
Causes of the Loss (I)
Causes of the Loss (I)
• Invasive alien species (IAS), or species that have spread outside of
their natural habitat and threaten biodiversity in their new area, are a
major cause of biodiversity loss.
• These species are harmful to native biodiversity in a number of ways,
for example as predators, parasites, vectors (or carriers) of disease or
direct competitors for habitat and food.
Causes of the Loss (P)
Pollution
• Bioaccumulation is an important concept connected with pollution.
This is the process of chemicals becoming increasingly concentrated
in animal tissues as they move up the food chain.
• The final driver of biodiversity loss is pollution. Pollution, in particular
from nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, is a growing threat
on both land and in aquatic ecosystems.
• While the large-scale use of fertilisers has allowed for the increased
production of food, it has also caused severe environmental damage,
such as eutrophication
Causes of the Loss (P)
• In the year 1800, there were fewer than 1 billion people on earth, and
today there are about 7.7 billion.
• Even without the vast increases in per capita resource use that have
occurred during this period, the pressures on biodiversity would have
increased during this time period simply based on population growth.
Causes of the Loss (C)
Causes of the Loss (C)
• Temperature Spikes
• Coral Bleaching
• Increases in Extreme Events
• Changes in Rainfall
• Increased CO2 and Plant Growth
• Sea-Level Rise
Causes of the Loss (O)
• Overexploitation, or unsustainable use, happens when biodiversity is
removed faster than it can be replenished and, over the long term,
can result in the extinction of species.
• For example: the once-plentiful cod fishery off the coast of
Newfoundland, Canada has all but disappeared because of
overfishing; freshwater snakes in Cambodia are declining from
hunting pressure;
Other Factors
Diseases:
• Since the animals are more vulnerable to infection, the anthropological
activities may increase the incidence of diseases in wild species, leading to
their extinction.
Shifting or Jhum cultivation:
• The shifting or Jhum cultivation by poor tribal people greatly affects the
forest structure which is a store house of biodiversity.
Poaching of wild life:
• A number of wildlife species are becoming extinct due to poaching and
hunting.
Impact of Loss of Biodiversity
Ecological Effects
• The weight of biodiversity loss is most pronounced on species whose populations are
decreasing. The loss of genes and individuals threatens the long-term survival of a
species, as mates become scarce and risks from inbreeding rise when closely related
survivors mate.
• Declining biodiversity lowers an ecosystem’s productivity (the amount of food energy
that is converted into the biomass) and lowers the quality of the ecosystem’s services.
• Biodiversity loss also threatens the structure and proper functioning of the ecosystem.
• Reduced biodiversity also creates a kind of “ecosystem homogenization” across regions
as well as throughout the biosphere.
Impact of Loss of Biodiversity
Economic And Societal Effects
• Biodiversity loss affects economic systems and human society. The loss of
biodiversity among these critical natural resources threatens global food
security and the development of new pharmaceuticals to deal with future
diseases.
• Economic scarcities among common food crops may be more noticeable
than biodiversity losses of ecosystems and landscapes far from global
markets.
• Mainstream and traditional medicines can be derived from the chemicals
in rare plants and animals, and thus lost species represent lost
opportunities to treat and cure.
Conservation of Biodiversity
Why to conserve Biodiversity?
Conservation Methods
(a) In-situ conservation:
• The conservation of species in their natural habitat or natural
ecosystem is known as in-situ conservation.
• In the process, the natural surrounding or ecosystem is protected and
maintained so that all the constituent species (known or unknown)
are conserved and benefited. The factors which are detrimental to
the existence of species concerned are eliminated by suitable
mechanism.
Conservation Methods
The different advantages of in situ conservation are as follows:
(a) If is a cheap and convenient way of conserving biological diversity.
(b) It offers a way to preserve a large number of organisms simultaneously, known or
unknown to us.
(c) The existence in natural ecosystem provides opportunity to the living organisms to
adjust to differed’ environmental conditions and to evolve in to a better life form.
The only disadvantage of in situ conservation is that it requires large space of earth which
is often difficult because of growing demand for space. The protection and management of
biodiversity through in situ conservation involve certain specific areas known as protected
areas which include national parks, Sanctuaries and Biosphere reserves.
Conservation Methods
(b) Ex-situ conservation:
• Ex-situ conservation involves maintenance and breeding of
endangered plants and animals under partially or wholly controlled
conditions in specific areas like zoo, gardens, nurseries etc.
• That is, the conservation of selected plants and animals in selected
areas outside their natural habitat is known as ex-situ conservation.
Conservation Methods
Some important areas under these conservation are:
(i) Seed gene bank,
(ii) Field gene bank;
(iii) Botanical gardens;
(iv) Zoos.
Conservation Methods
The strategies for ex-situ conservations are:
(i) Identification of species to be conserved.
(ii) Adoption of Different ex-situ methods of conservation.
(iii) Long-term captive breeding and propagation for the species which have lost
their habitats permanently.
(iv) Short-term propagation and release of the animals in their natural habitat
(v) Animal translocation
(vi) Animal reintroduction
(vii) Advanced technology in the service of endangered species.
Conservation Methods
The different advantages of ex-situ conservation are:
(a) It gives longer life time and breeding activity to animals.
(b) Genetic techniques can be utilised in the process.
(c) Captivity breed species can again be reintroduced in the wild.
Conservation Methods
Some disadvantages of this method are:
(a) The favourable conditions may not be maintained always.
(b) New life forms cannot evolve.
(c) This technique involves only few species.
Biogeography of India
• India is rich in biodiversity and it contains over 7 per cent of the
world's biodiversity on 2.5 per cent of the Earth's surface.

• It is home to 7.6% of all mammalian, 12.6% of all avian, 6.2% of all

reptilian, 4.4% of all amphibian, 11.7% of all fish, and 6.0% of all
flowering plant species.

• India has been divided into ten biogeographic zones. The division is
based on the climate, vegetation, plants, mammals, birds, reptiles,
insects and animals found in the region.
 Ten Biogeographic Zones in India
1. Trans Himalayan zone.
2. Himalayan zone
3. Desert zone.
4. Semiarid zone.
5. Western Ghat zone.
6. Deccan plateau zone.
7. Gangetic plain zone.
8. North east zone.
9. Coastal zone.
10. Islands present near the shore line.
Trans Himalayan zone
The Trans Himalayan regions of the states of Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal
Pradesh are a moonscape land an arid high altitude desert unlike any other part of
the Indian subcontinent.

Features of this region are:

Sparse vegetation
Snow covered area cold dry desert

Fauna:
Wild sheep, goat, black necked crane, snow leopard, ibex, shrew, and tapir.

Flora:
Mossy oak Oak, chestnut, conifer, ash, pine, deodar Himalayan fir.
Black Necked Crane Deodar

Snow Leopard
Himalayan Zone
The Himalayan ranges and valleys of Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand,
Assam and other North eastern States.

Features of this region are:

• Some of the highest peaks in the world are found here.
• Forest are dense and habitat of many species.
Himalayan Zone
Fauna:
Bharal (Pseudois nayaur), Ibex (Capra ibex), Markhor (Capra falconeri), Himalayan Tahr
(Hemitragus jemlabicus) Takin (Budoreas taxicolor).
Endangered species restricted to this zone include Hangul (Cervus eldi eldi) and Musk
Deer (Moschus moschif)

Flora:
The alpine and sub-alpine forests, grassy meadows and moist mixed deciduous forests.
Oak , chestnut ,Pine ash, conifer are found in abundance.
Conifer Oak Forest

Himalayan Tahr
Desert zone
This zone constituting 6.6 per cent of the total geographical area , includes
the Thar and the Kutch deserts.

Features of this region are:

• Natural vegetation is thorn forest.
• Discontinuous vegetation cover.
• Xerophytic herbs and some ephemeral herbs.
Desert zone
Fauna:
The desert scorpions, mongoose, red fox, falcons, and Chinkara. common teal, shell
duck, mallard, pochard, flamingo and pelican.

Flora:
Apluda aristata, Dichanthium antidotale,
annulatum, Panicum Cenchrus spp., Pennisetum spp., Cymbopogon .

The large trees include Prosopis juliflora, Prosopis cineraria, Caparis decidua, Ziziphus
nummularia, Acacia senegal and Salvadora oleoides.
Semi-Arid Zone
This zone is a transition zone between the desert and the dense forests of
Western Ghats .

Features of this region are:

Thorny shrubs, grasses and bamboos.

Areas of bare soil and soil-water deficit throughout the year.
Ephemeral herbs are found in this semi-arid tract.
Semi-Arid Zone
Fauna:
Blackbuck (Antilope cervicapra), chinkara (Gazella bennettii) and Indian wild
ass, eagles, harriers, falcons, buzzards, kestrel and vultures. There are short-
toed eagles (Circaetus gallicus), tawny eagles (Aquila rapax), greater spotted
eagles (Aquila clanga), laggar falcons (Falco jugger) and kestrels. The lion of
Gir is the endemic species in this zone.

Flora:
The large trees include Prosopis juliflora, Prosopis cineraria, Caparis
decidua, Ziziphus nummularia, Acacia senegal and Salvadora oleoides.
Calotropis, Gymnosporia
Western Ghats
The Western Ghats extend from the southern tip of the peninsula (8°N)
northwards about 1600 km to the mouth of the river Tapti (21°N).

Features of this region are:

• One of the unique biological regions of the world.
• Western Ghats are biodiversity hot-spots recognized globally.
• Western Ghat endemic plants are associated with evergreen forests.
Western Ghats
Fauna:

Big Indian cats, Great Indian elephants, wild boars, vulnerable Gaur – The
Indian bison and vulnerable sloth bears. Indian flying fox, Indian giant
squirrel and Nilgiri tahr. The Travancore Tortoise (Indotestudo forstem) and
Cane turtle (Heosemys silvatica) are two endangered species.

Flora:
Rosewood, Mahogany, Cedar,Teak, Sal, Shisham, Sandalwood, Litsea
glutinosa or Maida lakri in Hindi (a plant of medicinal value), Cinnamomum
(Tejpatta)
Deccan Plateau
This peninsular India is most extensive zone, covering particularly in the
States of Madhya Pradesh Maharashtra and Odisha.

Features of this region are:

• India’s largest biogeographic region making 42 per cent of the total
geographical area.
• Semi-arid region that falls in the rain shadow area of the Western
Ghats.
• Great biological diversity comprising of deciduous forests, thorn forests
and degraded scrubland support diverse wildlife
Deccan Plateau
Fauna: Chital (Axis axis), Sambar (Cervus unicolor), Nilgai (Boselapbus
tragocamelus) and Chousingha (Tetracerus quadricornis), Barking deer
(Muntiacus muntjak) and Gaur (Antilope cervicapra), Elephant (Elephas
maximus).

Flora:
Hardwickia binata and Albizia amara, (Tectona grandis) or sal (Shorea
robusta) Boswellia serrata, Lannea coromandelica, Anogeissus
latifolia, Albizia lebbeck, Lagerstroemia parvifolia, Diospyros
tomentosa, and Acacia catechu.
Gangetic Plain
This area is combined delta of the Brahmaputra River valley and
the Ganges (Ganga) River to the Indus River valley. The greater part of
the plain is made up of alluvial soil, deposited by the three main rivers and
their tributaries.

Features of this regions are:

• These are very fertile and agriculturaly productive land covered with
alluvial soil.
• Thick mangrove and evergreen forests grow in deltas of Ganga.
• ​It is spread over the states : Haryana, Delhi, U.P., Bihar,
partly Jharkhand and West Bengal.
Gangetic Plain
Fauna:
Rhino (Rhinoceros unicornis), Elephant (Elephas maximus), Buffalo
(Bubalus bubalis), Swamp Deer (Cervus duvauceli), Hog-Deer (Axis
porcinus) and Hispi

Flora: Teak, sal, shisham, mahua, khair .

North East Zone
This region represents the transition zone between the Indian, Indo-
Malayan and Indo-Chinese bio-geographical regions as well as being a
meeting point of the Himalayan mountains and peninsular India.

Features of this regions are:

• It has richest reservoir of plant diversity in India.
• All types right from grassland, meadows, marshes, swamps, shrub
forest, mixed deciduous forest, humid evergreen forest, temperate and
alpine vegetation are found here
• Most of the North Eastern states have more than 60% of their area
under forest cover, a minimum suggested coverage for the hill states in
the country.
North East Zone
Fauna:
Namdapha Flying Squirrel Orange-bellied Himalayan Squirrel (Dremomys
lokriah), Malayan Giant Squirrel (Ratufa bicolor), Hoary- bellied Squirrel
(Callosciurus pygerythrus) and Himalayan Striped Squirrel. Indian
rhinoceros

Flora:
Albizia species(Siris, Kolasiris, Koroi, Sau) Alstonia scholaris(Satiana),
Artocarpus chama
Gmelina arborea (Gomari), Michelia champaca(Teeta champa).
Coastal zone
India has a long coastline of 6100 km along the mainland and 7516.6
Km coastline including the island groups Andaman and Nicobar and
Lakshadweep.

Features of this regions are:

• The western coastal plains are an example of submerged coastal plain
and provides natural conditions for the development of ports and
harbours.
• The Eastern coastal plains are an example of emergent coastal plain and
are broader than the western coastal plains.
Coastal Zone
Fauna: dugong, dolphins, crocodiles and avifauna,Olive Ridley turtles ,
tiger, fresh water turtles, marine turtles.

Flora:
Avicennia marina, Suaeda spp., Rhizophora spp., and Bruguiera spp,
Avicennia officinalis, Aegiceras corniculatum, Ceriops, Lumnitzera
racemosa, and Excoecaria agallocha.
Island
Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal support and nurture
over a thousand species of animals both terrestrial habitats and marine
waters; a mosaic of mangroves, coral reefs and seagrass beds.

Features of this regions are:

• The high percentage of endemism is due to geographic isolation and
changed ecological conditions.
• Islands have tropical evergreen forests and tropical semievergreen
forests as well as moist deciduous forests, littoral and mangrove
forests.
Island
Fauna:
Andaman water monitor, giant robber crab, species of turtles, wild boar,
Andaman day gecko and Andaman water snake. The Narcondam hornbill
found only in Narcondam is a large forest bird with a big beak. Sea
cucumbers, sea-shells, sharks, marine turtles, saltwater crocodiles.

Flora:
Dendrobium tenuicaule, Eulophia nicobarica, Ginalloa andamanica,
Malleola andamanica, Taeniophyllum andamanicum and Wendlandia
andamanica .