Introduction

The irony is – “Biodiversity starts in the distant past and it points toward the future”.

Life is unique to our planet. It is earth's most precious asset. India may have close to a
million species, the vast majority of which remain to be named or described. These
hundreds and thousands of species in India live in many different types of ecological
communities or ecosystems spread from deep seas to mountain tops. The
extraordinary richness of life that surrounds us in the form of diverse arrays of
organisms, ecological communities, and natural landscapes, are also called biodiversity.
Biodiversity loss:

 Rise in awareness about nature loss as eco-wakening, grips globe

 Study indicates, global warming could reduce biodiversity in tropics

We often read such headlines in daily newspapers but do we have any idea about
the rate with which we are losing our biodiversity?

Biodiversity, sustains such human activities as agriculture, forestry, and fisheries, and is
the basis of our civilization. The fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas are derived
from plants and animals that dominated life on earth millions of years ago.
This biodiversity, a product of billions of years of evolution, has been rapidly declining
in recent years — a victim of humans' large ecological footprint on earth. Climate
change will exacerbate the rapid loss.

Importance and conservation of biodiversity:

India, like almost all other places in the world, has unique biodiversity. However, the
number of species that are unique to India is high. These hotspots have two common
features: a very high rate of biodiversity loss, and high proportion of endemic species
or species that are unique to that particular hotspot. The landmass of India
incorporates four of the 34 global hotspots: the Western Ghats, the Himalayas, Indo-
Burma (northeast India, south of Brahmaputra) and Sundaland (Nicobar Islands).
Biodiversity throughout the world is declining, and more so in India, due to expanding
human populations, increasing consumption, growing trade in natural products, and
poor governance. The Forest Survey of India monitors change in forest cover, and
publishes a report on the state of forest cover every two years

We need to review and strengthen our efforts to catalogue life in India by creating
centres of excellence in systematic biology and taxonomy, and by the use of tools and
opportunities provided by information technology. Platforms such as those developed
by India Biodiversity Portal (>www.indiabiodiversity.org) can involve students and
citizens in large numbers to document biodiversity.

Conclusion
In order to halt this biodiversity loss, we need concerted action by multiple players on
climate change, land degradation, pollution and unsustainable resource extraction.
Because of our intimate association with biodiversity, with the loss of biodiversity, we
face the prospect of losing ourselves. We therefore urgently need to document life,
and at the same time assess changes in biodiversity and curtail its loss.

Name: ANSHIKA CHAUHAN

Address: Behind Nation high school,
Near old Nagar Palika, ghosipura colony, Guna (M.P)-473001
E-mail ID: anshu.9chauhan@gmail.com
Contact Number: 8103847764
College: Lakshmi Narain College of Technology, Kalchuri Nagar, Raisen Road, Bhopal
(M.P)
E-mail: Lnctbhopal@Lnct.ac.in