India biodiversity-important biodiversity hotspots-biosphere reserves

•      One of the mega  biodiversity centres

•      The political boundaries of India encompass a wide range of ecozones—desert, high mountains, highlands, tropical and temperate forests, swamplands, plains, grasslands, areas surrounding rivers, as well as island archipelago.

•      It hosts 3 biodiversity hotspots: the Western Ghats, the Himalayas and the Indo-Burma region. These hotspots have numerous endemic species.

•      India, for the most part, lies within the Indomalaya ecozone, with the upper reaches of the Himalayas forming part of the Palearctic ecozone; the contours of 2000 to 2500m are considered to be the altitudinal boundary between the Indo-Malayan and Palearctic zones.

•       India displays significant biodiversity. One of eighteen mega-diverse countries, it is home to 7.6% of all mammalian, 12.6% of all avian, 6.2% of all reptilian, 4.4% of all amphibian, 11.7% of all fish, and 6.0% of all flowering plant species.

Biosphere reserves of India

The Indian government has established 18 Biosphere Reserves of India, (categories roughly corresponding to IUCN Category V Protected areas), which protect larger areas of natural habitat (than aNational Park or Animal Sanctuary), and often include one or more National Parks and/or preserves, along buffer zones that are open to some economic uses. Protection is granted not only to the flora and fauna of the protected region, but also to the human communities who inhabit these regions, and their ways of life

Nine of the Eighteen biosphere reserves are a part of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves, based on the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme list

Name	States	Year
Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve	TamilNadu, Kerala, Karnataka	2000
Gulf of Mannar Biosphere Reserve	Tamil Nadu	2001
Sundarbans Biosphere Reserve	[[West Bengal]]	2001
Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve	Uttarakhand	2004
Simlipal Biosphere Reserve	Odisha	2008
Nokrek Biosphere Reserve	Meghalaya	2009
Pachmarhi Biosphere Reserve	Madhya Pradesh	2009
Achanakmar-Amarkantak Biosphere Reserve	Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh	2012
Nicobar Islands	Andaman and Nicobar Islands	2013

 

•      In 2009, India designated Cold Desert of Himachal Pradesh as a biosphere reserve. On September 20, 2010, the Ministry of Environment and Forests designated Seshachalam Hills as the 17th biosphere reserve. Panna (Madhya Pradesh) was scheduled to become the 18th on August 25, 2011.

 

Potential sites for Biosphere Reserves

•      Following is the list of potential sites for Biosphere Reserves as selected by Ministry of Forests and Environment:

•      Namdapha, Arunachal Pradesh

•      Thar Desert, Rajasthan

•      Little Rann of Kutch, Gujarat

•      Kavalam, Assam

•      Kanha, Madhya Pradesh

•      North Islands of Andaman and Nicobar

•      Abujmarh, Chhattisgarh

•      Chintapalli, Andhra Pradesh

•      Lakshadweep Islands, Lakshadweep

•      Singhbhum

•      Seshachallam

•      Blue Mountain

•      Tawang and West Kamang