Biodiversity and Conservation: India’s
Panoramic View
Leepica Kapoor and S. Usha
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.
Keywords Mega diversity · Ecosystems · Species · Biodiversity loss ·
Conservation · National policies · Case studies
1 Introduction
Biodiversity encompasses variability “in” species, “between” species and “among”
ecosystems. A study of biodiversity helps us to measure the health of a biological
system by evaluating the diversification it offers at four levels; species, genetics,
ecosystem and functional diversity. Healthy ecosystems are characterized by existence of multiple species and supports growth and reproduction of its components.
Genetic diversity within species promotes adaptation to varied environments, protection from threats, growth and development in ever changing surroundings (Adom
L. Kapoor
School of Bio Sciences and Technology, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore 632014, India
S. Usha (B)
School of Social Sciences and Languages, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore 632014, India
e-mail: susha@vit.ac.in
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
N. Roy et al. (eds.), Socio-economic and Eco-biological Dimensions
in Resource use and Conservation, Environmental Science and Engineering,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32463-6_16
313
Panoramic View
Leepica Kapoor and S. Usha
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.
Keywords Mega diversity · Ecosystems · Species · Biodiversity loss ·
Conservation · National policies · Case studies
1 Introduction
Biodiversity encompasses variability “in” species, “between” species and “among”
ecosystems. A study of biodiversity helps us to measure the health of a biological
system by evaluating the diversification it offers at four levels; species, genetics,
ecosystem and functional diversity. Healthy ecosystems are characterized by existence of multiple species and supports growth and reproduction of its components.
Genetic diversity within species promotes adaptation to varied environments, protection from threats, growth and development in ever changing surroundings (Adom
L. Kapoor
School of Bio Sciences and Technology, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore 632014, India
S. Usha (B)
School of Social Sciences and Languages, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore 632014, India
e-mail: susha@vit.ac.in
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
N. Roy et al. (eds.), Socio-economic and Eco-biological Dimensions
in Resource use and Conservation, Environmental Science and Engineering,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32463-6_16
313