Biodiversity Hotspots in India

India, the seventh largest country in the world by geographical area (constitutes 2.4% of the total

geographical area of the world) with varied physiographic divisions, climatic regimes, and ecological

habitats exhibits a rich floral diversity, and harbours nearly 8% of the globally known flora, of which

28% of floral elements are endemic to the country (Mao & al., 2020). India is one of the 17 mega

diversity countries in the world (Williams, 2001). According to a recent estimation the country

harbours a total of 18,800 taxa of angiosperms, 82 taxa of Gymnosperms, 1307 taxa of

Pteridophytes, 2786 taxa of Bryophytes, besides 15447 taxa of Fungi, 7434 taxa of Algae, 2917 taxa

of Lichens and 1239 species of microbes (Viruses and Bacteria), which represent 8% of total

recorded plant species (including algae, fungi, lichens, viruses and bacteria) of the world (Mao & al.,

2020). India has four biodiversity hotspots namely Himalaya, Indo-Burma (Northeastern India and

Andaman Islands), Sundalands (Nicobar Islands) and Western Ghats (and Sri Lanka)

(https://www.conservation.org). The ecosystem profiles of these four hotspot regions are provided

in detail below.

1. Himalaya: Includes the entire Indian Himalayan region [Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal

Pradesh, Uttarakhand, northern part of West Bengal (Darjeeling), Sikkim, northern part of

Assam and Arunachal Pradesh] and that falling in Pakistan, Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, China and

Myanmar.

2. Indo-Burma: Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and southern China; also

included the entire northeastern India (Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, Meghalaya, and

Tripura), and Andaman group of Islands, Bangladesh and Malaysia, while originally defined by

Mittermeier & al. (2004).

3. Sundaland: Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and Philippines; also included Nicobar

group of Islands while originally defined by Mittermeier & al. (2004).

4. Western Ghats and Sri Lanka: Includes the entire Western Ghats [Tamil Nadu, Kerala,

Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra and Gujarat] and Sri Lanka.

1. HIMALAYA

The Himalaya hotspot stretching in an arc over 3,000 km of northern Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan and

the northwestern and northeastern states of India, includes all of the world's mountain peaks higher

than 8,000 m, including the world’s highest mountain, Mt. Everest (8,849 m) as well as several of the

world’s deepest river gorges. The Himalayan mountain range covers almost 7,50,000 km², and has

been divided into two regions namely the Eastern Himalaya (covers parts of Nepal, Bhutan, the

northeastern states of India namely West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam, and Arunachal Pradesh, southeast

Tibet, and northern Myanmar), and the Western Himalaya (covers the Kumaon-Garhwal, northwest

Kashmir, and northern Pakistan).

The Himalayan mountains with elevation ranging from less than 500 m to more than 8,000 m

supports a variety of ecosystems, from alluvial grasslands (the tallest in the world) and subtropical

broadleaf forests along the foothills to temperate broadleaf forests in the mid hills, mixed conifer

and conifer forests in the higher hills, and alpine meadows above the tree line. The Himalaya

hotspot was demarcated and recognized as a separate hotspot from the Indo-Burma hotspot while

the global hotspot regions were revisited and redefined based on the distribution of species,

threats, and changes in the threat status of these regions (Mittermeier &t al., 2004).

Source: Conservation International, 2004

Species Diversity and Endemism

Biogeographically, the Himalayan mountain range found in the transition zone between the

Palearctic and Indo-Malayan realms, therefore species from both realms are represented in the

hotspot. Furthermore, the geographical position, physiography climatic and altitudinal variations of

Himalayas have contributed to high level of plant diversity and endemism. The Himalayan hotspot is

an abode of 300 species of mammals (including 12 endemics and 4 threatened species), 977 species

of bird with 15 endemics and 8 threatened species, 176 reptile species (48 are endemics), 105

amphibian species with 40% endemism and 4 threatened species, and freshwater fishes are

represented by 269 species, of which 33 are endemic to the hotspot region.

According to Singh & al. (2019) the Indian Himalayan region harbours 11,157 taxa of flowering

plants in 2359 genera belonging to 241 families. Among the predominant families, the grass family

Poaceae is represented by 912 species followed by Asteraceae (820 spp.), Orchidaceae (819 spp.)

and Leguminosae (434 spp.). Carex with 183 species is the most species-rich genus followed by

Impatiens (122 spp.), Rhododendron (112 spp.), Primula (99 spp.), Pedicularis (9 spp.) and

Saxifraga (86 spp.).

The Himalayan states are endowed with rich floral diversity, Sikkim (4920 spp.), Uttarakhand (4781

spp.), Arunachal Pradesh (4523 spp.), Jammu and Kashmir (4252 spp.; presently as two different

Union Territories, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh; divided on 31 October 2019), and Himachal

Pradesh (3264 spp.). In the Himalaya hotspot, a zone of permanent rock and ice found from 5,500

to 6,000 m, and there are records of occurrence of vascular plants in this harsh environment.

Cushion plants have been recorded at elevations more than 6,100 m, while a high-elevation scree

plant, Solms-laubachia himalayensis (Cambess.) J.P. Yue, Al-Shehbaz & H. Sun (Brassicaceae),

was found at 6,300 m on the slopes of Mt. Kamet in the northwestern Himalayas.

The Eastern Himalayan region with 466 endemic taxa is richer in endemism compare to Western

Himalayan region, which harbours 297 endemic taxa (Singh & al., 2015). However, no families are
endemic to this region. In Eastern Himalaya, Orchidaceae with 77 endemic taxa, are the family with

high level of endemism, followed by Ericaceae (29 taxa), Lauraceae (27 taxa) and Balsaminaceae (22

taxa); similarly, genera such as Impatiens (30 spp.), Piper (17 spp.), and Rhododendron and

Agapetes with 10 species each are with high level of endemism (Singh & al., 2019).

Threats: Though the Himalayas are well-known for its difficult terrain, remoteness, inaccessibility,

and harsh climatic conditions, people have been living in the mountains of the Himalayas since

ancient times. The entire Himalayan mountain range harbours a wide range of economically

important plant resources. The demand for natural resources in the area has been increased greatly

in recent decades, which encouraged both immigration from outside and movement within the

region, resulting in exponential growth of human population in some of the areas with richest

biodiversity. Consequently, there is extensive clearing of forests and grasslands for cultivation, and

widespread logging both legally and illegally especially on steep slopes, resulting in severe erosion.

The land is also often cleared in the summer months for livestock, and the use of fire to clear land

poses an additional threat to forest land, as fires sometimes spread out of control.

The conversion of forests and grasslands for agriculture and settlements resulted in high rate of

deforestation and habitat fragmentation, especially in Nepal, and in the Indian states of Sikkim, West

Bengal (Darjeeling), and Assam. Furthermore, other anthropogenic activities such as overgrazing by

domestic livestock, overexploitation of plants for traditional medicine, fuel wood collection and

extraction of non-timber forest produces have posed severe damage to some forest ecosystems.

The unplanned and poorly managed tourism activities contribute to deterioration of environment.

Illegal poaching is also a serious problem in the Himalayas, especially the tigers and rhinoceros are

hunted for their body parts for traditional medicines, whereas snow leopards and red pandas are

sought for their beautiful pelts. Other activities such as mining, construction of roads and dams, and

pollution also pose threats to the existing natural habitats and biodiversity of the hotspot. In recent

years, the high mountain range is also exhibiting the impacts of climate change – the glaciers are

retreating, the permafrost is melting and the cloudbursts and floods are frequent.
2. INDO-BURMA

The Indo-Burma hotspot is the largest among the 36 recognized hotspots of the world with a total

geographical area of 2,308,815 km2 (Mittermeier & al., 2004). The originally defined Indo-Burma

hotspot included parts of northeastern India, Bangladesh and Malaysia (Mittermeier & al., 2004).

However, as northeastern India is included in the Himalaya hotspot, further the hotspot only

extends marginally into Bangladesh and Malaysia, and therefore for the purposes of the ecosystem

profile, Bangladesh, India and Malaysia are considered extralimital to the hotspot (CEPF, 2020).

The hotspot has an impressive geographic diversity, from Southeast Asia’s highest mountain, down

to a coastline along the Bay of Bengal, Andaman Sea, Gulf of Thailand and South China Sea. It also

includes eastern extensions of the Himalayas, isolated massifs and plateaus, and several of Asia’s

largest rivers and their fertile floodplains and deltas. Due to its high diversity of landforms and

climatic zones, Indo-Burma hotspot supports a wide variety of habitats and, thus, high overall

biodiversity (CEPF, 2020).

Source: Conservation International, 2004

Forests are the most species-rich ecosystems in the hotspot. The hotspot supports a variety of

forest types, from evergreen forests with a high diversity of canopy tree species, through semi-
evergreen and mixed deciduous forests, to relatively (tree) species-poor deciduous dipterocarp

forests. The limestone karst formations that are found throughout the hotspot support highly

unique ecosystems, with high levels of endemism, particularly among plants, reptiles and molluscs,

and these unique species found nowhere else (Clements & al., 2006).

Species Diversity and Endemism

The Indo-Burma hotspot covers all or part of seven endemic bird areas defined by BirdLife

International (http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/), 12 of the global 200 ecoregions defined by WWF

(Olson & al., 2000) and 28 centres of plant diversity defined by IUCN (Davis & al., 1995). The

offshore islands, montane isolates, limestone karst, and areas of lowland evergreen forest are the

natural habitats with high level endemism in the hotspot.

The Indo-Burma hotspot region represents the convergence of several distinctive temperate,

tropical and subtropical floristic regions namely the Indian, Malesian (Sundaic), Sino-Himalayan and

Indochinese (Schmid, 1989). Due to which, the region has extraordinarily high plant species richness

(Davis & al. 1995), and estimated to support 15,000 to 25,000 species of vascular plants, of which

half of angiosperms and gymnosperms are endemic to the hotspot (Davis & al., 1986; Campbell &

Hammond, 1989; Davis & al., 1995; van Dijk & al., 1999; Kress & al., 2003). There are 589 globally

threatened plant species in Indo-Burma (IUCN, 2020), comprising 45% of the hotspot’s globally

threatened species. Plant families Orchidaceae and Dipterocarpaceae are particularly notable for

their high species richness in the hotspot, and these two families are also with a large number of

globally threatened species in the hotspot. Over 50 species of orchids are recognized as globally

threatened, which include 33 species of slipper-orchid (Paphiopedilum spp.), which have been

overexploited for the horticultural trade. Similarly, the family Dipterocarpaceae includes highest

number of globally threatened species: 4 species of Anisoptera, 14 species of Dipterocarpus, 18

species of Hopea, three species of Parashorea, 17 species of Shorea, and 9 species of Vatica.

The hotspot harbours more than 470 mammal species (one-fifth considered globally threatened),

1,330 bird species (8% are globally threatened), reptiles are with more than 670 species, of which
more than a quarter are endemic and one-fifth are considered globally threatened, amphibians are

represented by more than 380 species, of which more than half are endemic and one-quarter are

listed as globally threatened, and 1,440 species of fish are reported (IUCN, 2020). The Indo-Burma

hotspot supports extraordinary vertebrate species richness, however, a significant proportion of

the vertebrate species in the hotspot have been assessed as globally threatened. One-fifth of

mammal species in the hotspot are considered globally threatened. The hotspot is also known for

its concentration of globally threatened primates, of which 20 are endemic to the hotspot.

Threats: According to Conservation International the Indo-Burma is one of the top five most

threatened biodiversity hotspots, due to the rate of resource exploitation and habitat loss. The top-

ranked threats to the biodiversity of this hotspot are poaching, trade and consumption of wildlife

and industrial agriculture, followed by construction of large infrastructures (such as dams, roads and

ports), logging, over-exploitation of natural resources, agricultural encroachment and climate

change.

The commercial timber extraction is the second highest factor for the deforestation in Indo-Burma,

accounting for 28% of forest destruction in the hotspot outside of China between 2001 and 2019

(Global Forest Watch, 2020). According to Foley (2020) about 1,20,000 km2 of forest ecosystems in

Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam (excluding the China portion of hotspot)

were destroyed between 2000 and 2017. Similarly, due to habitat loss the other landscapes such as

freshwater floodplain swamps and wetlands have also been affected; these landscapes have been

converted into agricultural fields and for other uses, many rivers have been dammed and modified,

and large areas of mangrove have been enclosed within aquacultural ponds, and grasslands have also

lost in highest proportion. The natural wetland habitats such as mangroves, lagoons, marshes and

other wetlands, including some Ramsar sites along the coastal zones of hotspot have been

extensively converted either into shrimp and fish farms (Ong, 2003; CEPF, 2020), or been cleared

for charcoal and fuelwood (Yan, 2019; CEPF, 2020).

The ecosystem profiling team and experts of various national and international biodiversity and

conservation research organizations consider the weak governance, regulation and enforcement,

and low public awareness and knowledge on the importance of biodiversity are some of the indirect

threats to the loss of biodiversity in this hotspot region.

Indo-Burma with 1,298 globally threatened species, including many are confined exclusively to this

region is one of the most important hotspots in the world for the conservation of globally

threatened species (CEPF, 2020). However, there is no attention on the species-focused

conservation from national governments in the hotspot. Therefore, it is strongly felt that the

protected area systems in the region have to be managed by the respective government effectively.

The local communities in the hotspot region, who can effectively prevent the biodiversity loss, have

to be empowered and encouraged to follow the traditional management practices or adopting new

models for community-based conservation.

3. SUNDALAND

The Sundaland hotspot covers a group of some 17,000 islands in the western half of the Indonesian

archipelago, and stretching around 5,000 km along the equator between Asia and Australia. The

hotspot covers about 1.6 million km2 area; majorly occupied by the islands of Borneo (725,000 km²)

and Sumatra (427,300 km²). Politically, Sundaland covers a small portion of southern Thailand

(provinces of Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat), nearly the entire Malaysia (nearly all of Peninsular

Malaysia and the East Malaysian states of Sarawak and Sabah in northern Borneo), Singapore at the

tip of the Malay Peninsula, all of Brunei Darussalam, and all of the western half of Indonesia,

including Kalimantan (the Indonesian portion of Borneo, Sumatra, Java, and Bali). The Nicobar

Islands, which are under Indian jurisdiction, are also included.

 Source: Conservation International, 2004

The Sundaland hotspot is adjacent to three other hotspots, namely Wallacea to the east, Indo-

Burma to the west, and the Philippines to the north. The landscape comprises of high mountain

ranges (Mount Kinabalu with 4,101 m elevation, is the highest peak), volcanoes (23 are active),

alluvial plains, lakes, swamps, and shallow coastal waters.

Species Diversity and Endemism

Sundaland is one of the richest biodiversity hotspots, harbouring about 25,000 species of vascular

plants, of which 15,000 species (60%) are exclusively confined to this hotspot. The hotspot is

home to 117 endemic plant genera, of which 59 are found in Borneo, 17 in Sumatra, and 41 on

the Malay Peninsula. Borneo has high level of tree diversity; there are about 3,000 tree species,

including more than 265 species of dipterocarps, of which at least 155 are endemic to the island.

Borneo also has more than 2,000 species of orchids. Sumatran forests include more than 100

dipterocarp species, nearly a dozen of which are endemic, and Java has more than 270 endemic

orchids. Notable plants in the hotspot include members of the genus Rafflesia, represented by 16

species, including Rafflesia arnoldii, which produces the largest individual flower on earth,
measuring up to one meter in diameter, and weighing about 7 kg.

Sundaland has six endemic bird areas, and the hotspot is home to 769 species of birds, of which

142 are endemic (18.5%) and 43 are globally threatened species. According to CEPF, the hotspot

supports 380 species of mammals, including 172 endemics (45.3%) and 60 threatened species, 452

reptile species with 243 endemics (53.8%), about 80% of amphibians (196 out of 244 species) are

endemic and 59 species are threatened, and the freshwater ecosystems in the hotspot region

support 950 species of fishes, of which 350 are endemic (36.8%).

Threats: The destruction of forest is the most significant threat to the existing biodiversity of

Sundaland hotspot. The illegal and legal commercial extraction of timber and non-timber forest

products, rubber production, pulp production and oil palm plantations are some of the serious

threats to the forest cover in the hotspot region. In the Jambi Province of Sumatra, the regional

government is promoting expansion of oil palm plantations, and hectares of forest have been

converted for the plantations. Rapid road construction increases the extent and speed of

deforestation, by providing access for loggers, settlers, and miners. The gold and silver mining

operations in South Sumatra resulted in forest destruction, and increased flooding and pollution of

river systems in the adjacent areas.

According to recent estimates Kalimantan's protected lowland forests declined by 56% between

1985 and 2001, primarily due to logging, and at current deforestation rates, the lowland forest in

Sumatra and Kalimantan may soon disappear completely. Illegal hunting and illegal wildlife trade

are the most harmful threats to the fauna of Sundaland. For instance, the population of orangutans

has severely been reduced in the past because of the pet trade, and in recent years, tigers and

rhinoceroses are being hunted for skins, body parts, and horns for the Chinese medicine markets.

Similarly, turtles, snakes, geckos, pangolins, bears, and monkeys are exported.

Poverty, rivalries among ethnic groups, corruption and lack of political will to strictly enforce the

laws to protect the biodiversity are considered as prime factors for the loss of forest cover in the
hotspot region. A good number of governmental and non-governmental national and international

organizations and agencies such as the European Union, the Global Environment Facility, the

United Nations Development Programme, the World Bank, Conservation International, Wildlife

Conservation Society – Indonesia and World Wide Fund for Nature – Indonesia have invested a

large sum of money to safeguard the biodiversity through conserving the biologically rich forest

ecosystems of the hotspot through proper management, especially by increasing the participation

of local communities in promoting sustainable management of the biological resources.

4. WESTERN GHATS AND SRI LANKA

The Western Ghats of southwestern India and the highlands of southwestern Sri Lanka, separated

by 400 km, but strikingly similar in their geology, climate and evolutionary history, covering an

area of 1,89,611 km2 have been designated as the biodiversity hotspot (Myers & al., 2000). The

Western Ghats, a biogeographically important formation of the Gondwanaland, is formed of the

Malabar plains and the chain of mountains running parallel to India's west coast, about 30 to 50

km inland. The Western Ghats indigenously known as ‘Sahyadri’ covers an area of about 1,64,280

km², constituting 5% of the total area of India. It stretches for about 1,600 km, starting

downwards from the Tapti River in Gujarat to the country's southernmost tip Kanyakumari in

Tamil Nadu. The mountain range is interrupted by number of natural gaps and passes, and the

widest being the 24–30 km one, called the Palakkad (Palghat) Gap.
 Source: Conservation International, 2004

The Western Ghats has an average elevation of 1200 m, ranging from 300 to 2695 m. Anaimudi

(2,695 m) in Kerala, and Doddabetta (2,637 m) and Mukurthi (2,554 m) in Tamil Nadu are the

highest peaks in the Western Ghats. The mountain range receives rainfall from the southwest and

northeast monsoons. The western slopes of the mountain experience heavy annual rainfall (80%

during the southwest monsoon, from June to September), and the remaining 20% of rainfall from

northeast monsoon that occurs in October and November. The eastern slopes of Western Ghats

are drier, and the rainfall also decreases from south to north. Around 60 medium- to large-sized

rivers originate in this mountain range, including the peninsula’s three major eastward-flowing

rivers namely Godavari, Krishna and Cauvery, the important sources of drinking water, irrigation,

and power. The Western Ghats was designated as one of the world heritage site by the

UNESCO's World Heritage Committee on 1st July 2012.

The wide variation of rainfall patterns coupled with complex geography produces a great variety

of vegetation types in the Western Ghats. These include scrub forests in the low-lying rain
shadow areas and the plains between 200 and 500 m elevation; moist deciduous forests occur at

elevations ranging from 500 to 900 m; dry deciduous forests found on the eastern slopes at an

elevation of 300–900 m; the tropical moist evergreen forests occupy up to an elevation of about

1,500 m along the western slopes with rainfall of 250–500 cm, and a unique mosaic of montane

forests and rolling grasslands (shola-grassland complex) found in the high plateaus of Western

Ghats from 1,500 to 2000 m elevation.

Sri Lanka is a continental island separated from southern India by the 20-meter-deep Palk Strait.

The island country has about 67,654 km² geographical area. Sri Lanka experiences tropical

climate. According to Department of Meteorology of Sri Lanka the country receives monsoonal,

convectional and depressional rains, and the mean annual rainfall varies from under 900 mm in the

driest parts (southeastern and northwestern) to over 5000 mm in the wettest parts. The country

has mostly low, flat to rolling plain terrain, with mountains in the south-central interior, and the

highest point is Pidurutalagala (2,524 m). The island nation despite small in size supports wide

range of natural/semi-natural ecosystems due to its ecological, climatic, soil and topographical

variability. The ecosystems in the country can be broadly categorized into (i) the marine and

maritime or coastal ecosystems, (ii) natural forest ecosystems, (iii) natural and semi-natural

grassland ecosystems, and (iv) the inland wetland ecosystems. Six different forest types are found

in the country namely (i) tropical lowland wet evergreen forests or lowland rain forests, (ii)

tropical submontane forests, (iii) tropical montane forests, (iv) tropical moist evergreen forests,

(v) tropical dry mixed evergreen forests, and (vi) thorn scrub forests.

Species Diversity and Endemism

The Western Ghats is home to a rich assemblage of endemic plants and animals due to varied

topography and microclimatic regimes found in this hotspot region. In the Western Ghats, the

Agasthyamalai hills, Nilgiris, Anamalai hills, Palani hills, Meghamalai, Cardamom hills, Silent Valley–

New Amarambalam forests, Wyanad–Kodagu, Shimoga–Kanara, Konkan and Mahabaleshwar–

Khandala are some of chief centres of plant diversity and endemism in the Western Ghats. Nayar
& al. (2014) in their two-volume book on the “Flowering Plants of the Western Ghats” recorded

7,995 taxa of flowering plants (7,402 species and 593 infraspecific taxa) belonging to 1,480 genera

and 210 families, of which 5,588 are indigenous, 376 are exotics naturalized and 1,438 are

cultivated or planted. According to Singh & al. (2015) Western Ghats has 2,116 endemic

angiospermic taxa, but no flowering plant family is endemic to this region, however, the Western

Ghats harbours 24 endemic genera, of which 16 are confined to southern part and 8 are

restricted in the northern part of Western Ghats.

Poaceae, Leguminosae, Orchidaceae, Acanthaceae, Cyperaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Asteraceae,

Lamiaceae, Rubiaceae and Apocynaceae are some of the angiospermic families with high level of

species diversity in the Western Ghats. The fascinating group of plants, orchids, is represented in

this region by 305 species belonging to 73 genera, of which 12 are endemic to this mountain

range (Singh & al., 2019). The five grass genera namely Bhidea, Danthonidium, Hubbardia,

Indopoa and Silentvalleya are strictly confined to the Western Ghats (Nagaraju & al., 2020).

The Western Ghats also harbours c. 90 species of Impatiens, of which majority of them are

endemic to this region (Dessai & Janarthanam, 2011). Apart, there are many flowering plant

genera such as Strobilanthes, Ceropegia, Syzygium, Arisaema, Vernonia, Garcinia,

Cinnamomum, Piper, Calamus and Andrographis with high level of species diversity and

endemism in the Western Ghats.

The faunal wealth of Western Ghats is rich and diverse. Among the vertebrates, birds are

represented by largest number; of the 508 reported avian species (Radhakrishnan & Rajmohana,

2012), 29 are endemic to the Western Ghats (http://www.bnhsenvis.nic.in/), and 15 are

threatened (Radhakrishnan & Rajmohana, 2012). There are 131 recognized amphibian species in

25 genera, of which 114 species (87%) are strictly confined to this biodiversity hotspot (Biju & al.,

2008). However, according to Radhakrishnan & Rajmohana (2012) there are 181 species of

amphibians found in the Western Ghats, of which 159 are endemic to the region. According to

Srinivasulu & al. (2014), of the 227 species of Indian reptiles, 107 species (47.13%) are endemic to
Western Ghats, of these, 18 are threatened, 8 are Near Threatened and 38 are assessed as Data

Deficient. The checklist of freshwater fishes of Western Ghats reports 379 species from the

region, of which 151 species (39.84%) are endemics (Dayal & al., 2014). Nameer & al. (2001)

enumerated 137 species of mammals, of which 16 are endemic to the hotspot region. According

to World Wide Fund for Nature – India, Western Ghats is the home for around 30% of the

world’s Asian elephant population and 17% of the world’s existing tigers

(https://www.wwfindia.org/). The Western Ghats also supports 332 species of butterflies,

including 36 endemics (Kunte & al., 2021), and 193 species of odonates (dragonfly and damselfly)

have been reported from the Western Ghats, of these 74 species are endemic to the region

(Subramanian & al., 2018).

Among the Asian countries, Sri Lanka with a total land area of 65,610 km2 has the highest species

density (number of species per 10,000 km2) for flowering plants, and some vertebrate faunal

groups such as amphibians, reptiles, and mammals (NARESA, 1991). Weerakoon (2012) outlined

the biodiversity of Sri Lanka in the National Red List, wherein he has provided the species

diversity of selected faunal and floral groups of country as follows: angiosperms: 3,154 species

(894 endemics); gymnosperms: 2 species; pteridophytes: 336 species (49 endemics); mammals:

125 species (21 endemics; 56% threatened); birds (resident): 240 species (33 endemics; 27% are

threatened); reptiles: 211 species (125 endemics; 59% threatened); amphibians: 111 species (95

endemics; 66% are threatened); freshwater fishes: 91 species (50 endemics; 49% threatened).

There is a drastic decline in the population of elephant, one of the flagship species of Sri Lanka,

both in dry and wet zones. A total of 1,385 species of flowering plants out of 3,154 species have

been classified as threatened, of which 594 are endemic to Sri Lanka.

Threats: Habitat loss due to destruction, fragmentation, or degradation of natural habitats,

overexploitation of biological resources, encroachment of forest areas for various plantations,

conversion of forest areas and wetlands for agriculture, mining activities, grazing of livestock,
invasion of alien species, illegal poaching, pollution, and climate change are posing threats to the

existing flora and fauna of this hotspot. The frequently occurring landslides due to extreme rainfall

events during monsoons are considered as one of the most devastating natural disasters in the

Western Ghats. Similarly, the natural and artificial forest fires also pose threat to the biodiversity

of this region. The extremely high population pressure in both countries of this hotspot has

seriously stressed the region's biodiversity.

The forests have been converted to agricultural land for monoculture plantations of tea, coffee,

rubber, oil palm, teak, eucalyptus, and wattle, and are also cleared for building reservoirs, roads,

and railways. Grazing by cattle and goats within and near protected areas causes severe erosion

on previously forested slopes. Forests are also subject to intense hunting pressure and the

extraction of fuelwood and non-timber forest products. Uncontrolled tourism and forest fires are

additional concerns. The growth of human populations around protected areas and other forests

has led to increasing human-wildlife conflict in the hotspot region.

Recognizing the ecological and economic importance of this global biodiversity hotspot, the

Government of India and Sri Lanka have established many protected areas (National Parks,

Wildlife Sanctuaries, Community Reserves and Conservation Reserves, besides Biosphere

Reserves, Tiger and Elephant Reserves) in their respective country to effectively protect and

conserve the flora and fauna of the region. The government of these two nations also introduced

various types of legislation to prevent the destruction of forests and wildlife from various

anthropogenic pressures, and there should be a regular system of biodiversity monitoring in

protected areas by the competent authorities. Furthermore, awareness should be created among

the local communities inhabiting in the hotspot and its adjacent region, and they have to be

encouraged to follow the traditional management practices to effectively conserve and sustainably

utilize the bioresources in the region.

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In: Stuart, S.N., Hoffmann, M., Chanson, J.S., Cox, N.A., Berridge, R., Ramani, P. & Young,

B.E. (eds.), Diversity and conservation status of the Western Ghats Amphibians. Lynx

Edicions. pp. 80–82.

Campbell, D.G. & Hammond, H.D. (eds.) 1989. Floristic inventory in tropical countries: the

status of plant systematics, collections and vegetation, plus recommendations for the future.

New York Botanical Garden, New York.

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W. Arisdason1 & A.A. Mao2

1Botanical Survey of India, Southern Regional Centre, TNAU Campus, Lawley Road,

Coimbatore – 641003, Tamil Nadu

2Botanical Survey of India, Headquarters, 3rd MSO Building, CGO Complex, DF Block,

Sector-I, Salt Lake City, Kolkata – 700 064, West Bengal