Thousands and thousands of animals,birds, plants and such species live on earth, sharing the same space –this is called the earth’s biodiversity.Scientists believe this biodiversity is under threat from human driven activities; that more plants and animal species are lost on earth than they ever were in many centuries. For example, the rate at which global mammals are lost since the 1600s is between 17 to 377 times more than in the past 65 million years (from a paper by E Somanathan, Indian Statistical
Institute).
While the whole world is full of diverse species, some areas are richer in variety than others – these are called biological hotspots. The idea of a hotspot came from a British ecologist called Norman Myers. Based on what he said, scientists pinpointed about 25 areas all over the world, amounting to about 2.3 per cent of
the land on Earth. Nine other regions also now qualify for it.
Now comes the amazing part. Although these hotspots comprise such a small part of the Earth’s surface, almost half of the world’s plants and nearly half (42 per cent) of land animals are endemic (originate from) to these regions. The bad part, almost 70 per cent of the original vegetation in these areas is lost. Time to do
something about it, no?
Hotspot India
Two of the world’s biodiversity hotspots are in India. Here’s some amazing info about them. One is our very own Western Ghats and Eastern Himalayas.The Western Ghats.They rise in the Satpura Range in the north and go through Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka and Kerala all the way south for 1600 kms. Yet the Western Ghats are not even technically mountains – they are the very edge of the Deccan plateau. But these ghats are one of the 10 hottest biodiversity regions in the world! This area has over 5000 species of flowering plants, 139 mammal species, 508 bird species and 179 amphibian species. At least 325 globally threatened species occur in the Western Ghats. Here’s a scrapbook of
the wide range of beautiful animals and birds that live in thisregion.## Subscribe to Child Project Helper by Email
Institute).
While the whole world is full of diverse species, some areas are richer in variety than others – these are called biological hotspots. The idea of a hotspot came from a British ecologist called Norman Myers. Based on what he said, scientists pinpointed about 25 areas all over the world, amounting to about 2.3 per cent of
the land on Earth. Nine other regions also now qualify for it.
Now comes the amazing part. Although these hotspots comprise such a small part of the Earth’s surface, almost half of the world’s plants and nearly half (42 per cent) of land animals are endemic (originate from) to these regions. The bad part, almost 70 per cent of the original vegetation in these areas is lost. Time to do
something about it, no?
Hotspot India
Two of the world’s biodiversity hotspots are in India. Here’s some amazing info about them. One is our very own Western Ghats and Eastern Himalayas.The Western Ghats.They rise in the Satpura Range in the north and go through Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka and Kerala all the way south for 1600 kms. Yet the Western Ghats are not even technically mountains – they are the very edge of the Deccan plateau. But these ghats are one of the 10 hottest biodiversity regions in the world! This area has over 5000 species of flowering plants, 139 mammal species, 508 bird species and 179 amphibian species. At least 325 globally threatened species occur in the Western Ghats. Here’s a scrapbook of
the wide range of beautiful animals and birds that live in thisregion.## Subscribe to Child Project Helper by Email
