Multiple threats to Himalayan biodiversity€¦ · 940 species of birds, 316 spe-cies of fi shes,...
Transcript of Multiple threats to Himalayan biodiversity€¦ · 940 species of birds, 316 spe-cies of fi shes,...
The Indian Himalayas, whichconstitute about 12% of thecountry’s landmass, is hometo about 30.16% of its fauna,says a new publication fromthe Zoological Survey of In-dia (ZSI).
The publication, FaunalDiversity of Indian Hima-laya, lists 30,377 species/subspecies in the region withthe entire identifi��ed fauna inthe country adding up to1,00,762.
Spread across six States —from Jammu and Kashmir inthe west through HimachalPradesh, Uttarakhand, Sik-kim and West Bengal’s Dar-jeeling to Arunachal Pradeshin the far east — the IndianHimalayas are divided intotwo bio-geographic zones —the Trans-Himalaya and theHimalaya, based on physio-graphic, climatic and eco-bi-ological attributes.
Abundance of speciesThe entire region, spread ov-er 3.95 lakh sq. km., is hometo 280 species of mammals,940 species of birds, 316 spe-cies of fi��shes, 200 species ofreptiles and 80 species ofamphibians. This put togeth-er accounts for 27.6% of thetotal vertebrate diversity ofthe country.
The central Himalayas arethe most rich in faunal diver-sity with 14,183 species, fol-lowed by the west Hima-layas, which is home to12,022 species.
Dr. Kailash Chandra, Di-rector of ZSI, one of the auth-ors of the publication, saidno other geographic regionin the country is as uniqueand infl��uences the ecologyand bio-geography of thecountry as the Indian Hima-layas.
Extensive collaborationAccording to Dr. Chandra, 85taxonomic experts and spe-cialists of various groups offaunal groups actively collab-orated and contributed morethan 50 chapters on the or-ganisms, their habitats andthe threats facing them.
In addition to Dr. Chan-dra, the publication has beenco-authored by K.C. Gopi,Devanshu Gupta, BausudevTripathi and Vikas Kumar.
Measuring the range ofspecies spread over the biot-ic provinces of the vast In-dian Himalayan land mass,the authors aimed to identifyareas for future research.
Dr. Chandra said the faunaof the region exhibited anintermingling of boththe Oriental and Pa-laearctic-Ethiopian
elements. He explained thatthe eastern parts of the In-dian Himalayas, a bio-diver-sity hotspot, had tropical ele-ments with their affi��nitiesfrom Indo-Chinese and Ma-layan sub-regions of theOriental region. The fauna ofthe western part of the In-dian Himalayas on the otherhand, comprises the Medi-terranean and Ethiopianelements.
The Indian Himalayas alsohave 131 protected areas,which cover 9.6% of the en-tire protected area of thecountry, almost the same asthe Western Ghats (10% ofprotected areas), anotherbiodiversity hotspot in the
country. The protectedareas include 20 na-
tional parks, 71 wil-dlife sanctuaries,
fi��ve tiger reserves,four biospherereserves and se-
ven Ramsar Wetland sites.The publication lists 133
vertebrate species of the re-gion cited as threatened in
the IUCN Red List. This in-cludes 43 species of mam-mals like the critically endan-gered Pygmy Hog, theNamdapha fl��ying squirreland the endangered Snow le-opard, the Red Panda andthe Kashmir Gray Langur.
Fifty-two species of birdsare also in the threatened ca-tegory like the critically en-dangered White-Bellied He-ron and Siberian crane andvulnerable species like theBlack Necked crane and theIndian Spotted eagle, amongothers. Of the 940 bird spe-cies found in the Indian Hi-malayas, 39 are endemic tothe region.
The Indian Himalayas
host 1,249 species/subspe-cies of butterfl��ies, with thehighest density recorded inArunachal Pradesh. Some ofthe rare high-altitude butter-fl��ies found in the Himalayasare Parnassius stoliczkanus(Ladakh banded Apollo) andParnassius epaphus (RedApollo), listed under Sche-dule I and Schedule II of theWildlife Protection Act, 1972,respectively.
Role of climate changeAccording to experts, mostof the threatened species ofvertebrates, particularlymammals, require popula-tion assessment and study ofthe role of climate change on
their habitat.Climate change is the ma-
jor threat as far as mammalsand birds are concerned.The impact is visible in theshifting distribution of sensi-tive species like the AsiaticBlack Bear, the Snow leo-pard, and the HimalayanMarmot. “Carnivores andtheir habitats are threatenedby ever-increasing human-wildlife confl��ict in the re-gion,” the publication states.
Habitat loss due to landuse change, illegal wildlifetrade, forest fi��res and in-creasing anthropogenic ac-tivities pose threats to thisHimayalan biodiversity, thepublication underlines.
Multiple threats to Himalayan biodiversityHome to 30% of India’s fauna, the regionhosts several endangered species
Shiv Sahay Singh Kolkata
Future tense: Pit viper, Red panda and (below) Black-necked crane are among the species under threat. * SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
<> 20 national parks, 71wildlife sanctuaries, fi��vetiger reserves and fourbiosphere reserves fall inthe region