Tag: evs

An Act of the Parliament of India for the preservation of biological diversity in India was passed in 2002 known as the Biodiversity Act of India. This act provides methods for the sharing of benefits in an equitable manner arising out of the use of traditional biological resources and its knowledge. The function of this act includes: Regulation of acts prohibited under the Act, Advise the Government on the conservation of biodiversity, etc. Any offense under this Act is non-bailable and cognizable.

A mountain range that runs parallel to the western coast of the Indian peninsula is known as the Western Ghats. The area has over 7,402 species of flowering plants, 1,814 species of non-flowering plants, 139 mammal species, 508 bird species, 179 amphibian species, 6,000 insects species, and 290 freshwater fish species. Many undiscovered species also exist. Around 325 globally threatened species also occur here. And this makes clear that the Western Ghats are the most biodiversity-rich zone in India. It is also known as 'Cradle of speciation'.

The Earth Summit of Rio de Janeiro, also known as the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), was held in Rio de Janeiro from 3 to 14 June 1992. It resulted in the Convention on Biodiversity, a multilateral treaty. Three major goals were addressed in this convention which included: conservation of biodiversity; sustainable use of its components; and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the genetic resources. India became a party to this convention in 1994.

Indo-Burma is a biodiversity hotspot. Ecological hot spots are large areas of Earth's land surface which have high concentrations of plant endemism and also experience high rates of habitat loss. In India, 4 ecological hot spots are presently identified. The Himalayas, the Western Ghats, the Indo-Burma region and the Sundaland constitute the 4 biodiversity hotspots in our country. One of the major features of these places is the presence of numerous endemic species.

In agroecosystems, biodiversity performs a variety of ecological services beyond the production of food, including recycling of nutrients, regulation of microclimate and local hydrological processes, suppressions of undesirable organisms and detoxification of noxious chemicals.