Question

India is one of the seventeen mega diversity centers of the world. It has three of $34$ hotspots of biodiversity. What do you understand by the two terms? State the values attached to them?

Answer 1

Mega diversity regions are the areas which are provided with the greater diversity and the endemic species in them. India is provided with the $8.1\%$ of the genetic resources of the world and it is found to be one of the seventeen mega diversity regions.

Complete Answer:
- This concept of mega diversity was used first by Russell Mittermaier in the year $1988$. He used this term for creating awareness in the protection of the natural resources.
- The megadiverse countries occupy the $70\%$ of the terrestrial land area. And hence protection of the natural resources in these areas is very important.
- India is divided into the ten biodiversity regions based on its resources. This division was done by the wildlife institute of India.
- The ten biodiversity regions are Himalayas, Trans Himalayas, desert, semi-arid, Western Ghats, Deccan peninsula, coast, island, north east, genetic plain. The life and the nature of the life in these areas varies depending upon the land forms. The Himalayas, Western Ghats are the mountainous regions where the other areas are plane areas. The desert region includes the windy arid areas.

Note: The seventeen mega diversity countries include Australia, Brazil, China, Colombia, Ecuador, United states, Philippines, India, Indonesia, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Republic of Congo, Venezuela and South Africa.