Hot spots

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 Hot spots
“Areas which exhibit high species richness as well as high species
endemism are termed as HOTSPOTS of biodiversity.”

In the world there are 25 hot spots.

With less than 2% world land area and they cover
50% of world terrestrial biodiversity.
Criteria for recognizing hot spots are:
Should have a significant percentage of specialized species.
At least 0.5% of plant species should be endemic

40% of terrestrial plants and 25% of vertebrates are found in these hot spots

Endemism: Species which are restricted only to a particular area are known as endemic
species. About 62% of amphibians and 50% of lizards are endemic to India.
Western Ghats are the site of maximum endemism
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 • There are 25 hotspots in the world
• Four of them are in India

• They are Western Ghats, Indo-Burma, Sundalands and Eastern Himalayas

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 Hot spots of India
1. Himalaya: Includes the entire Indian Himalayan
region

2. Indo-Burma: Includes entire North-eastern India,

except Assam and Andaman group of Islands

3. Sundalands: Includes Nicobar group of Islands

4. Western Ghats: Includes entire Western Ghats

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Hot spots of India

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 Hot spots of India

• 35,000 plant species of which 30% are endemic

species
• e.g.: Banana, citrus, chili, rice, jute and
sugarcane

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 Hot spots of India

• Endemic species: 63% mammals

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 Hot spots of India

• Eastern Himalayan endemic species: 60% of the Indian birds are

from North East

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Eastern Himalayas

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 Hot spots of India
Eastern Himalayas
• Varied topography which is one of the reasons for
species diversity
• In Sikkim, 4250 plant species are found out of which
2550 (60%) are endemic
• In the remaining parts of the area 5800 plant
species of which 36% are endemic are found.
• e.g. for endemic species is
• Sapria Himalayana

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 Western Ghats
Extends along 16,000 km2 strip of forests in
Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamilnadu and
Kerala.

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 Western Ghats

1600 species are endemic

• 40% of the total endemic plant species.
• 62% amphibians, 50% lizards are endemic
• Only 6.8% of the original forest is existing now in this region.
• Major regions are Agastya Malai Hills and Silent Valley – the new
amambalam reserve basin

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 Indo-Burma Region
➢ This region consists of numerous countries
including North-Eastern India (to the
south of the Brahmaputra River),
Myanmar, and China's Yunnan provinces
southern part, Lao People's Democratic
Republic, Vietnam, Cambodia, and
Thailand.

➢ It is spread over a distance of 2 million

square kilometers.

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 Sundaland
➢ This region lies in South-East Asia and
includes Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia,
Brunei, and Malaysia.

➢ The Nicobar Islands represent India.

➢ These islands were declared as the world

biosphere reserve in 2013 by the United
Nations.

➢ These islands have a rich terrestrial as well as

marine ecosystem

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Although the four hot spot regions are
situated at far, some species are common to
both regions:
they include: Tornestroemia Japonica,
Rhododendrum and hypercium, laughing
thrush, fairy blue bird, lizard hawk etc.

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Mega-biodiversity nations

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 Mega-biodiversity nations
• 70% of the world species are found in these nations.

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 India as a mega-biodiversity nation

• There are 12 mega-diversity nations in the world

• working together for conservation of biodiversity –

India is one among them!

➢ What makes India a mega-biodiversity nation?

✓ Species richness
✓ Species endemism
✓ Biogeographically different regions
✓ Hot spots
✓ Biodiversity conservation efforts
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 What makes India a mega-biodiversity nation?
Species richness
6% of species exist in India – 10th among plant richness, 11th in terms of endemic species
6th place in origin of agricultural crops - 150,000 species

Species endemism
About 62% of amphibians, 50% of lizards are endemic to India
(Endemic = Native; existing only in the region where they are found.
Endemism describes species that are native to a particular geographic area or
continent. They are restricted to that area and not naturally found in any other
place.)
About 5000 flowering plants, 166 crop plants and 320 species of wild varieties of
cultivated crops originated in India
Along 7500 km coastal line 340 species of corals are found
Several other marine fish, crustaceans, seagrasses are found in India.

Areas rich in endemism are,

North-east India
Western Ghats
Gangetic plains (plains along river Ganges)
Eastern Ghats
North-western and Eastern Himalayas
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 What makes India a mega-biodiversity nation?

Biogeographically different regions

India has a wide spectrum of habitats due to its 10 bio-geological

regions
Snow covered Himalayas, western and eastern Ghats
Planes – Gangetic planes and Deccan Peninusula
Oceans
Islands
Arid and semiarid regions

These regions have different climatic conditions,

Tropical regions with heavy rain and not much variation in
temperature
Subtropical zones with hot most of the time and cold in winter
Temperate zones with warm summer and cold winter
Alpine zone with short summer and severe winter

Because of these, India has almost all types of ecosystems found in the world,
like the tropical dry/deciduous forests, warm deserts, and semi deserts, mountain
ecosystems, ocean ecosystems 44
 What makes India a mega-biodiversity nation?

Hot spots
❖ India has four of the world’s 25 hot spots, namely, the Western Ghats, Indo-
Burma, Sundalands and Eastern Himalayas
❖ It is home for 33% of life forms found in the world.
❖ Only 2% of land mass but 8% of biodiversity

Biodiversity conservation efforts

❖ India has 33 botanical gardens, 89 national parks, 275 zoos, 504 sanctuaries,
12 biosphere reserves
❖ It has 5 world heritage sites and 6 Ramsar wetlands.
❖ It is signatory in several International conventions that protect wild life and
biodiversity.
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