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Biodiversity: Forestry in India Wildlife of India

India has high biological diversity as a megadiverse country, hosting 8.6% of mammal, 13.7% of bird, 7.9% of reptile, 6% of amphibian, and 12.2% of fish species globally. A third of Indian plants are endemic to the region. India's forest cover is 21.35% of the country's land area, ranging from very dense to open forests. Many endemic Indian species descended from the southern supercontinent of Gondwana before India's collision with Eurasia led to species exchanges that caused some extinctions.

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38 views2 pages

Biodiversity: Forestry in India Wildlife of India

India has high biological diversity as a megadiverse country, hosting 8.6% of mammal, 13.7% of bird, 7.9% of reptile, 6% of amphibian, and 12.2% of fish species globally. A third of Indian plants are endemic to the region. India's forest cover is 21.35% of the country's land area, ranging from very dense to open forests. Many endemic Indian species descended from the southern supercontinent of Gondwana before India's collision with Eurasia led to species exchanges that caused some extinctions.

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joanpadilla
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We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Biodiversity

Main articles: Forestry in India and Wildlife of India

A 1909 map showing India's forests, bush and small wood, cultivated lands, steppe, and desert

A 2010 map shows India's forest cover averaged out for each state.

India has the majority of the world's wild tigers, nearly 3,000 in 2019,[176] Shown here is Maya, a Bengal
tigress of the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve, Maharashtra.

India is a megadiverse country, a term employed for 17 countries which display high biological
diversity and contain many species exclusively indigenous, or endemic, to them.[177] India is
a habitat for 8.6% of all mammal species, 13.7% of bird species, 7.9% of reptile species, 6%
of amphibian species, 12.2% of fish species, and 6.0% of all flowering plant species.[178][179] Fully a
third of Indian plant species are endemic.[180] India also contains four of the world's 34 biodiversity
hotspots,[52] or regions that display significant habitat loss in the presence of high endemism.[i][181]
India's forest cover is 701,673 km 2 (270,917 sq mi), which is 21.35% of the country's total land area.
It can be subdivided further into broad categories of canopy density, or the proportion of the area of
a forest covered by its tree canopy.[182] Very dense forest, whose canopy density is greater than 70%,
occupies 2.61% of India's land area.[182] It predominates in the tropical moist forest of the Andaman
Islands, the Western Ghats, and Northeast India.[183] Moderately dense forest, whose canopy density
is between 40% and 70%, occupies 9.59% of India's land area.[182] It predominates in the temperate
coniferous forest of the Himalayas, the moist deciduous sal forest of eastern India, and the dry
deciduous teak forest of central and southern India.[183] Open forest, whose canopy density is
between 10% and 40%, occupies 9.14% of India's land area,[182] and predominates in the babul-
dominated thorn forest of the central Deccan Plateau and the western Gangetic plain.[183]
Among the Indian subcontinent's notable indigenous trees are the astringent Azadirachta indica,
or neem, which is widely used in rural Indian herbal medicine,[184] and the luxuriant Ficus religiosa,
or peepul,[185] which is displayed on the ancient seals of Mohenjo-daro,[186] and under which the
Buddha is recorded in the Pali canon to have sought enlightenment,[187]
Many Indian species have descended from those of Gondwana, the southern supercontinent from
which India separated more than 100 million years ago.[188] India's subsequent collision with Eurasia
set off a mass exchange of species. However, volcanism and climatic changes later caused the
extinction of many endemic Indian forms.[189] Still later, mammals entered India from Asia through
two zoogeographical passes flanking the Himalayas.[183] This had the effect of lowering endemism
among India's mammals, which stands at 12.6%, contrasting with 45.8% among reptiles and 55.8%
among amphibians.[179] Notable endemics are the vulnerable[190] hooded leaf monkey[191] and the
threatened[192] Beddom's toad[192][193] of the Western Ghats.

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