BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION STATUS IN INDIA

Abstract
India supports large proportion of floral and faunal diversity consisting of 14.7% of lower biota, 8.53% of gymnosperms, 7% of angiosperms, 8.08 % invertebrates, 11.72% Pisces, 4.06% amphibian, 7.84% reptiles, 13.66% aves and 8.42 % mammals of the world. The recent changes in the environment due to unplanned development work throughout the world have brought threat to biodiversity. Now the government is taking decision for the conservation of the biodiversity. India is signatory to different International conventions of flora and fauna conservation and has also applied that in principle by creating 14 Biosphere reserves, 87 national parks and 485 sanctuaries. Furthermore, India has seven Ramsar wetlands and five world heritage sites making its strong commitment for the conservation of world biodiversity. Now the biodiversity status is improving in the country day by day with planned sustainable strategies and enact of different polices and, laws etc. These efforts of conservation tend to 4.75.%( 15.6 mha) of India as protected area.
Biodiversity
India contains a great wealth of biological diversity in its forests, its wetlands and in its marine areas. This richness is shown in absolute numbers of species and the proportion they represent of the world total.
Endemic Species
India has many endemic plant and vertebrate species. 140 endemic genera but no endemic families (Botanical Survey of India, 1983). Areas rich in endemism are north-east India, the Western Ghats and the north-western and eastern Himalayas. A small pocket of local endemism also occurs in the Eastern Ghats (MacKinnon & MacKinnon, 1986). The Gangetic plains are generally poor in endemics, while the Andaman and Nicobar Islands contribute at least 220 species to the endemic flora of India (Botanical Survey of India, 1983).
WCMC's Threatened Plants Unit (TPU) is in the preliminary stages of cataloguing the world's centers of plant diversity; approximately 150 botanical sites worldwide are so far recognized as important for conservation action, but others are constantly being identified (IUCN, 1987). Five locations have so far been issued for India: the Agastyamalai Hills, Silent Valley and New Amarambalam Reserve and Periyar National Park (all in the Western Ghats), and the Eastern and Western Himalaya.
The 396 known endemic higher vertebrate species identified mammals and birds are relatively low. Only 44 species of Indian mammals have a range that is confined entirely to within Indian territorial limits. Four endemic species of conservation significance occur in the Western Ghats. They are the Lion-tailed macaque Macaca silenus, Nilgiri leaf monkey Trachypithecus johni (locally better known as Nilgiri langur Presbytis johnii), Brown palm civet Paradoxurus jerdoni and Nilgiri tahr Hemitragus hylocrius.
Only 55 bird species are endemic to India, with distributions concentrated in areas of high rainfall. These areas, mapped by Bird Life International (formerly the International Council for Bird Preservation) . They are located mainly in eastern India along the mountain chains where the monsoon shadow occurs, south-west India (the Western Ghats), and the Nicobar and Andaman Islands (ICBP, 1992).
In contrast, endemism in the Indian reptilian and amphibian fauna is high. There are around 187 endemic reptiles, and 110 endemic amphibian species. Eight amphibian genera are not found outside India. They include, among the caecilians, Indotyphlus, Gegeneophis and Uraeotyphlus; and among the anurans, the toad Bufoides, the microhylid Melanobatrachus, and the frogs Ranixalus, Nannobatrachus and Nyctibatrachus. Perhaps most notable among the endemic amphibian genera is the monotypic Melanobatrachus which has a single species known only from a few specimens collected in the Anaimalai Hills in the 1870s (Groombridge, 1983). It is possibly most closely related to two relict genera found in the mountains of eastern Tanzania.
Threatened Species
India contains 172 species of animal, considered globally threatened by IUCN, or 2.9% of the world's total number of threatened species (Groombridge, 1993). These include 53 species of mammal, 69 birds, 23 reptiles and 3 amphibians. India contains globally important populations of some of Asia's rarest animals, such as the Bengal Fox, Asiatic Cheetah, Marbled Cat, Asiatic Lion, Indian Elephant, Asiatic Wild Ass, Indian Rhinoceros, Markhor, Gaur, Wild Asiatic Water Buffalo etc. Summary accounts for some of the globally threatened mammals found in India. The number of species in various taxa that are listed under the different categories of endangerment is shown below.
Development and History
The protection of wildlife has a long tradition in Indian history. Wise use of natural resources was a prerequisite for many hunter-gatherer societies, which date back to at least 6000 BC. Extensive clearance of forests accompanied the advance of agricultural and pastoral societies in subsequent millennia, but an awareness of the need for ecological prudence emerged and many so-called pagan nature conservation practices were retained. As more and more land became settled or cultivated, so these hunting reserves increasingly became refuges for wildlife. Many of these reserves were subsequently declared as national parks or sanctuaries, mostly after Independence in 1947. Examples include Gir in Gujarat, Dachigam in Jammu & Kashmir, Bandipur in Karnataka, Eravikulum in Kerala, Madhav (now Shivpuri) in Madhya Pradesh, Simlipal in Orissa, and Keoladeo, Ranthambore and Sariska in Rajasthan.
India has a great many scientific institutes and university departments interested in various aspects of biodiversity. A large number of scientists and technicians have been engaged in inventory, research, and monitoring. The general state of knowledge about the distribution and richness of the country's biological resources is therefore fairly good.
Inventories of birds, mammals, trees, fish and reptiles are moderately complete. The importance of these biological resources cannot be overestimated for the continued welfare of India's population.
Endemic species of plants Pteridophyta 200, Angiosperms 4950 Endemic species of animals Mollusca Land 878 Freshwater89 16,214Insecta Amphibia110 Reptilia214 Wild relatives of some crops and medicinal plants Millets51 Fruits104 Spices and condiments27 Vegetables and pulses55 fibre crops24 Oil seeds, tea, coffee, Tobacco and sugarcane12 Medicinal plants3000 Source: (Source: MoEF 1999. )
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