Paragraph on India as a Mega-Diversity Nation!
India has a very rich diversity of wild plants and animals, and is considered to be one of the mega-diversity country. Its share of the global biodiversity is about 8.6% of wild plant and animal species respectively.
Estimates for the number of micro-organism species are not available. Parallel to this enormous diversity in domesticated animals such as buffalo, goat, sheep, pig, poultry, horses, ponies, camels and yak.
As per American standards, the productivity of these animals is very poor, but having undergone periods of rigorous selection, races are hardy, adaptable to heat and parasitic stresses and can survive on poor roughage. A great variety also exists among our crops. For example, Indian farmers probably grew over 30,000 varieties of rice alone.
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Both plant and animal species are under threat of extinction primarily due to modification, degradation and loss of their habitats, causes by various developmental projects like industries, urban housing complexes, rail, road, and other communication networks, over exploitation, introduction of exotic species, pollution and global warming.
Estimates show that about 50 species are being drawn to extinction every day, and at this rate about 25% of present day biodiversity is likely to become extinct during the next 20-30 years if appropriate steps are not taken for its conservation. It is, therefore, the prime responsibility of all scientists and technocrats to ensure that developmental activities promoted by them cause no / minimal loss to biodiversity of an area.