A Glimpse on Status of B iodiversity in India

The sustainable livelihood of humankind depends on mutual interaction between liv­ing and nonliving components in the ecosystem. The living partn er includes plants, animals and microorganisms. Their variety and variability together is referred as biodiversity. The megadiversity country India is very rich in biodiversity comprising 7.8% of the world’s known live forms. The country has as many as 91,000 species of animals and 47,000 species of plants. Unfortunately, the biodiversity, the world’s most fundam ental capital stock, is under threat due to natural as well as anthropogenic pressures. This paper highlights in brief the present status of Indian biodiversity.