Biodiversity and conservation: India’s Panoramic View

Abstract

India is a mega diverse country and is known for its prodigious biodiversity encompassing varied floral and faunal species, terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and rich agricultural and genetic diversity. However, factors like hotspots, extinction of species, changes in the climatic conditions, adverse effects of pollution, decline of traditional knowledge and alien invasive species are a threat to India’s Biodiversity. Effective measures have been taken by formulation of legislative and national policies in line with NBSAP (National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plan) stated under the Convention on Biological Diversity. The implementation of these measures is supervised from grass root level to national level to combat the biodiversity loss. There are several success stories which highlight the initiatives taken up towards safeguarding and enriching India’s rich biodiversity of which two case studies have been discussed in this chapter.