Question

Which of the following numbers denote the number of species of flora and fauna found in India?
1. 14000 & 18000
2. 26000 & 81000
3. 35000 & 81000
4. 47000 & 81000

Answer 1

Hint: India has almost 8 per cent of the world's total number of animals (estimated to be 1.6 million). Around 15,000 flowering species of the estimated plant species are endemic (indigenous to India. According to a recent estimate identified by scientists, the natural world comprises around 8,7 million species.

Complete Answer:
- India has a great variety of fauna with a vast diversity of climate and physical environments, numbering 89,451 species, including protista, mollusca, arthropoda, amphibia, mammalia, reptilia, protochordata members, etc..
- The mammals include the mighty elephant, the gaur or Indian bison, the largest of existing cattle, the great Indian rhinoceros, the Himalayan giant wild sheep, the swamp deer, the thamin spotted deer, the nilgai, the four-horned antelope, the Indian antelope, etc. The tiger and lion are the most majestic among the cats; other splendid animals are also found, such as the clouded leopard, the snow leopard, the marbled cat, etc.
- India has a rich and varied flora with a wide variety of climatic conditions, from the torrid to the arctic, which only a few countries of comparable scale possess. India, namely the western Himalayas, the eastern Himalayas, Assam, the Indus plain, the Ganga plain, the Deccan, Malabar and the Andamans, can be split into eight distinct floristic regions.
India is flora-rich.
- The Botanical Survey of India (BSI), Kolkata, has identified 47,000 species of plants from around 70 percent of the geographical area surveyed so far. 15,000 species compose the vascular flora, which forms the conspicuous plant cover. Of these, more than 35% are endemic and have not been reported anywhere in the world to date.

The alternatives given are below:
- There are more than 14000 and 18000 species of flora and fauna in the world. Option 1 is therefore incorrect.
- There are 81000 species of fauna, but there are more than 26000 species of flora in the country. Option 2 is indeed, thus an incorrect option.
- So far there are 81000 species of fauna in India, but there are over 35000 species of flora in the country. Thus, Option 3 is not the right alternative.
- In this region, over 81,000 species of fauna and 47,000 species of flora have been found so far. Thus, the correct answer is Choice 4.

Therefore, Option 4 is the right alternative.

Note: Vulnerable and threatened are more than 39 species of mammals, 72 species of birds, 17 species of reptiles, three species of amphibians, two species of fish, and a considerable number of butterflies, moths and beetles. Around 1,336 species of plants are deemed vulnerable and endangered. India ranks tenth in the world and fourth in plant diversity in Asia. In the form of a publication titled Red Data Book, the Botanical Survey of India details an inventory of endangered plants.