BIODIVERSITY

The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity states that the biodiversity is the variety among living organisms from all sources including terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and ecological complexes of which they are a part includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems. Sum total of species richness, i.e. number of species of plants, animals and microorganisms occurring in a given region, country, continent or on the earth.

CLASSIFICATION Genetic diversity: which is a measure of variety available for the same genes within individual species Species diversity: which describes the different kinds of organisms within individual communities or ecosystems Ecological diversity: which is the richness and complexity of a biological community, including rich number of tropical levels and ecological processes that capture energy, sustain food webs and recycles materials within this system Landscape diversity: involves more than just the spatial arrangement of habitats across a large area and include the flux of energy, nutrients, disturbances and organisms across area

V ALUE OF BIODIVERSITY We get the following benefits from a rich biodiversity Food: all of our food comes from other organisms Drugs and medicines: living organisms provide us many drugs and medicines Ecological benefits: we are totally depending on the ecological services, which in turn provided by other organisms. These services are Soil formatting Air and water purification Water disposal Nutrient cycling Food production

Aesthetic benefits: Millions of people enjoy hunting, fishing, camping, wildlife watching and other natural activities These activities provide stress relief and good exercise In many religions, nature is considered as god’s creation and particular species of plants/animals is being worshipped Social value: people are enjoying wildlife, including hunting and fishing, wildlife photography Local biodiversity can bring cash to the remote areas through ecotourism

B IODIVERSITY AT GLOBAL LEVEL Based on the rate of new discoveries, around three to fifty million species may be alive today Among these around 1.4 million species are presently known About 70% of all known species are invertebrates(animals without backbone such as insects)

B IODIVERSITY HOTSPOTS The richness of species concentration at a particular region is called biodiversity hotspots Most of the world’s biodiversity concentrations are near the equator Only 10 to 15% live in North America and Europe when compared to the distribution of species worldwide Area isolated by water, desert or mountains can have high concentration of unique species and biodiversity. There are 18 hotspots identified worldwide. These cover about million sq. km and house roughly 0.45 million species

B IO GEOGRAPHICAL CLASSIFICATION OF I NDIA Country is quite rich in biodiversity with a sizable percentage of flora and fauna Total number of plant species is 5150 and animals 1837 The richness in biodiversity is due to immense variety of climatic and altitudinal conditions coupled with varied ecological habitats These vary from humid tropical Western Ghats to the hot deserts of Rajasthan, from cold deserts of Ladakh and icy mountain of Himalayas to the warm coast of peninsular India India with 2.45% of world’s area has 8.1% of world’s total biodiversity with a species count of about 0.13 million

B IOSPHERE RESERVES OF I NDIA Biosphere reserves are terrestrial and coastal ecosystems, which are internationally recognized within the framework of UNESCO’s Man and Biosphere programme India has 13 biosphere reserve, 27 tiger reserves, 89 national parks and 497 wildlife sanctuaries The total protected area is about million sq. km

E NDANGERED AND ENDEMIC SPECIES OF I NDIA India has several problems such as over population, large number of cattle, growing demand for land, energy and water supply which threatens the rich biodiversity Timber extraction has affected many animal species Faunal losses have been mainly because of over exploitation of certain species for trading purpose, habitat alteration and destruction, pollution of streams, lakes and coastal zones

Extinct: species that are no longer known to exist in the wild. Endangered: taxa in danger of extinction and whose survival is unlikely if the causal factors continue operating. Included are taxa whose numbers have been reduced to a critical level or whose habitats have been so drastically reduced that they are deemed to be in immediate danger of extinction Vulnerable: taxa believed likely to move into the endangered category in the future, if the casual factors continue operating. Included are taxa of which most or all the populations are decreasing because of overexploitation, extensive destruction of habitat or other environmental disturbances Rare: taxa with small world population but that are not at present endangered or vulnerable but are at risk Threatened: it is a general term to denote that are fall into any of the above category

E NDANGERED AND ENDEMIC SPECIES OF I NDIA Red data book: the name given to the book dealing with threatened animals or plants of any region In India the botanical survey of India, has combined three volumes of red data book having information on endangered plant species 23 animal species including Cheetah have become extinct There are about 1232 species of birds including 55 are endemic. Two of them has become extinct, 5 to 10 % are considered threatened Botanical survey of India estimated that about 10% of plant species are threatened

T HREATS TO BIODIVERSITY Except a few cases, most of the extinction (elimination of a particular species) process is caused by human. Some of them are: Habitat destruction Fragmentation hunting and fishing

H ABITAT DESTRUCTION Human disturbances of natural habitat is the largest single cause of loss of biodiversity Over the past 10,000 years, billions of hectares of forests, woodlands and grasslands have been converted to commercial forests, croplands, or grazing lands Humans now use about 10% of world’s land surface for crop production, and about twice that amount for pasture and grazing lands

FRAGMENTATION In addition to habitat loss, a serious problem is habitat fragmentation- the reduction of habitat into smaller and smaller, more scattered patches Fragmentation reduces biodiversity because many species, such as bears and large cats, require large territories to subsist Other species like interior birds reproduce successfully only in deep forests or other habitat far from edges and human settlement Fragmentation also divides population into isolated groups

H UNTING AND FISHING Over harvesting is responsible for depletion or extinction of many species Hunting of species for human consumption will extinct the entire population For example, American passenger pigeon was world’s most abundant bird with a population between 3 and 5 billion, some 200 years ago. Hunting and habitat destruction caused the entire population to near extinct. Fish stocks have been seriously depleted by overharvesting in many parts of the world

M AN - WILDLIFE CONFLICT Rapidly growing human population interfere with wildlife creating man-wildlife conflicts. The reasons are The domestic cattle compete with wild animals for grass and water Agriculturists, especially in temperate highlands, hill slopes and river beds encroach in wildlife area Wildlife areas are disturbed by transport, resorts and hunting that are related to tourism The glamour for products obtained from wildlife such as skin, horns, tusks etc.

C ONSERVATION OF BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY Biological diversity is one of the important tools for sustainable development One should take all necessary steps to preserve biological diversity There is urgent need to educate people to adopt environment friendly practices And re-orient activities in such a way that our development is harmonious with other life forms and is sustainable

C ONSERVING BIODIVERSITY IN PROTECTED HABITATS Wildlife conservation efforts are mostly concentrated on protecting animal and plant life in zoos, sanctuaries, gardens biosphere reserves, etc. The two basic approaches to the wild life conservation in protected habitats are In-situ conservation Ex-situ conservation

I N - SITU CONSERVATION The conservation is possible by allocating large portion of earth’s surface for wildlife. These large pockets of protected zones are essential for not only conserving vast number of species of living organisms but also provide opportunities to evolve In spite of such efforts being taken, many protected habitats are used for logging, tourism and other profitable activities and thus giving less importance to wildlife conservation Many protected habitats are facing problems of encroachment, maintenance monitoring and land management

E X - SITU CONSERVATION This programme involves conservation of wildlife in captivity under human care. This involves collection of endangered plants and animals and birds under conditions in gardens, zoos, sanctuaries, etc.

A DVANTAGES OF EX - SITU Organisms are assured of food, water, shelter and security and hence can have longer life span and longer span of breeding activity. In case of endangered species, ex-situ offers the possibility of using genetic techniques to improve the species concerned Since the process of breeding takes place under controlled conditions with modern facilities, the chances of survival of endangered species are very bright

D ISADVANTAGES OF EX - SITU Species under captivity are under set of favourable environmental conditions, deprive the opportunity to adapt to ever changing natural environment. Thus new life forms cannot evolve The maintenance cost of breeding of plants and animals are very expensive

O THER STEPS FOR CONSERVATION Biodiversity inventories: well documented inventories and assessment of current conditions, abundances, distributions and management directions are need for genetic resources, species populations Conserving biodiversity in seed banks and gene banks: seeds of most of the plants can be stored in seed banks or gene banks or germ banks Imparting environmental education: importance of eco- friendly practices Reviewing agricultural practices: avoiding non eco-friendly crops and promoting organic farming Controlling urbanization: rapid urbanization and converting agricultural lands to residential places should be controlled Restoration of biodiversity Population control Environmental legislation