Question

Why has India a rich heritage of flora and fauna?

Answer 1

Hint:The word flora refers to plant life while the word fauna refers to animal life. A country’s flora and fauna is mostly dependent on its geographical factors. India is a biologically diverse country because of a range of factors.

Complete Answer:One can quantitatively understand India’s diversity of flora and fauna by considering the facts given below-
- It has about 47,000 plant species
-It stands at tenth place in the world and fourth in Asia in plant diversity.
-It has 89,000 species of animals
-It has 15,000 flowering plants and ferns.

India has rich diversity in plant as well as animal species because of the following reasons:
1.India is geographically a huge country. It has almost all physiographic features like mountains (Himalayas ), plateau (Deccan Plateau), coastal areas , plains (Gangetic plains) and islands (Andaman and Nicobar, Lakshadweep ). Different physiographic features support different plants and are habitats to different kinds of animals.

2.India has diverse climates too. From the cold desert of Ladakh to the tropical evergreen forest of the western ghats, India has different climate types and different climates support different types of flora and fauna. While bamboo grows in the tropical forest of the North East, khejri is found in deciduous vegetation of Rajasthan.

3. India also has different kinds of soil. Black soil is found in Deccan plateau, laterite soil is found in Odisha and Chattisgarh, marshy soil is found in Rann of Kutch and alluvial soil is found in Gangetic plain. Different kinds of soil support different kinds of vegetation.

India also has many rivers ,some originate from the Peninsular plateau and some from the Himalayas. These rivers are the life of the different kinds of flora and fauna found in the country.

Note:Though India is naturally gifted in resources and flora and fauna, the government has taken a few steps to ensure that these species are properly conserved. Some steps in this direction are Biological Diversity act 2002, Wildlife Protection Act 1972 and Environment Protection Act 1986.
Another important fact to keep in mind is that India is one of the twelve mega biodiversity countries of the world.