HOT- SPOTS OF BIODIVERSITY
Short note
A biodiversity hotspot is a biogeographic region with a significant reservoir of biodiversity that is
threatened with destruction.
An area is designated as a hot spot when it contains at least 0.5% of plant species as endemic.
There are 25 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) ,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.
Criteria for determining hot-spots
No. of Endemic Species i.e. the species which are found no where else.
Degree of threat, which is measured in terms of Habitat loss.
E.g. 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.
E.g. Western Ghats and Sri Lanka
Western Ghats and Sri Lanka, also known as the “Sahyadri Hills” encompasses the montane
forests in the southwestern parts of India and on the neighboring Islands of Sri Lanka.
The entire extent of hotspot was originally about 1,82,500 square kms, 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.
HOT SPOTS OF BIODIVERSITY
Detail Notes
Areas which exhibit high species richness as well as high species endemism are termed as hot
spots of biodiversity.
The term was introduced by Myers (1988). There are 25 such hot spots of biodiversity on a global
level out of which two are present in India, namely the Eastern Himalayas and Western Ghats. Two of
these hotspots lie in India extending into neighboring countries namely, Indo-Burma region (covering
Eastern Himalayas) and Western Ghats - Sri Lanka region. The Indian hot spots are not only rich in floral
wealth and endemic species of plants but also reptiles, amphibians, swallow tailed butterflies and some
mammals.
These hotspots covering less than 2% of the world’s land area are found to have about 50% of the
terrestrial biodiversity. According to Myers et al. (2000) an area is designated as a hotspot when it
contains at least 0.5% of the plant species as endemics. About 40% of terrestrial plants and 25% of
vertebrate species are endemic and found in these hotspots.
After the tropical rain forests, the second highest number of endemic plant species are found in
the Mediterranean . Broadly, these hot spots are in Western Amazon, Madagascar, North and East
Borneo, North Eastern Australia, West Africa and Brazilian Atlantic forests. These are the areas of high
diversity, endemism and are also threatened by human activities.
(a) Eastern Himalayas:
They display an ultra-varied topography that fosters species diversity and endemism. There are
numerous deep and semi-isolated valleys in Sikkim which are extremely rich in endemic plant species. In
an area of 7298 Km of Sikkim about 4250 plant species are found of which 60% are endemic. The forest
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cover of Eastern Himalayas has dwindled to about 1/3rd of its original over. Certain species like Sapria
himalayana, a parasitic angiosperm was sighted only twice in this region in the last 70 years. Recent
studies have shown that North East India along with its contiguous regions of Burma and Chinese
provinces of Yunnan and Schezwan is an active center of organic evolution and is considered to be the
cradle of flowering plants. Out of the world,s recorded flora 30% are endemic to India of which 35,000
are in the Himalayas.
(b) Western Ghats:
It extends along a 17,000 Km strip of forests in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala
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and has 40% of the total endemic plant species. 62% amphibians and 50% lizards are endemic to Western
Ghats. Forest tracts upto 500 m elevation covering 20% of the forest expanse are evergreen while those in
500-1500 m range are semi ever green. The major centers of diversity are Agastyamalai Hills and Silent
Valley, the New Amambalam Reserve Basin.
Although the hotspots are characterized by endemism, interestingly, a few species are common to
both the hotspots in India. Some common plants include Ternstroemia japonica, Rhododendron and
Hypericum, while the common fauna includes laughing thrush, Fairy blue bird, lizard hawk etc.
indicating their common origin long back in the geological times.
INDIA AS A MEGA-DIVERSITY NATION
India is one of the 12 megadiversity countries in the world. The Ministry of Environment and
Forests, Govt. of India (2000) records 47,000 species of plants and 81,000 species of animals which is
about 7% and 6.5% respectively of global flora and fauna. Table: Distribution of species in some major
groups of flora and fauna in India
Endemism:
Species which are restricted only to a particular area are known as endemic. India shows a good
number of endemic species. About 62% of amphibians and 50% of lizards are endemic to India. Western
ghats are the site of maximum endemism.
Center of origin:
A large number of species are known to have originated in India. Nearly 5000 species of
flowering plants had their origin in India. From agro-diversity point of view also our country is quite rich.
India has been the center of origin of 166 species of crop plants and 320 species of wild relatives of
cultivated crops, thereby providing a broad spectrum of diversity of traits for our crop plants.
Marine diversity:
Along 7500 km long coastline of our country in the mangroves, estuaries, coral reefs, back waters
etc. there exists a rich biodiversity. More than 340 species of corals of the world are found
here. The marine diversity is rich in mollusks, crustaceans (crabs etc.), polychaetes and corals. Several
species of Mangrove plants and sea grasses (Marine algae) are also found in our country. A large
proportion of the Indian Biodiversity is still unexplored.
There are about 93 major wet lands, coral reefs and mangroves which need to be studied in detail.
Indian forests cover 64.01 million hectares having a rich biodiversity of plants in the Trans-Himalayan,
north-west, west, central and eastern Himalayan forests, western ghats, coasts, deserts, Gangetic plains,
deccan plateau and the Andaman, Nicobar and Lakshadweep islands. Due to very diverse climatic
conditions there is a complete rainbow spectrum of biodiversity in our country.
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