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2. INTRODUCTION
• Bio- different forms of life and Diversity-different varieties
• Biodiversity is the total variety of life on our planet, the
total number of races, varieties and species.
• The sum of total of various types of microbes, plants and
animals (producers, consumers and decomposers) in a
system.
• It means the large variety of flora and fauna on this planet
earth.
• Biological Diversity is the variability among living
organisms from all sources including- terrestrial, marine
and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological
complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity
within species and of ecosystems.

3. LEVELS OF BIODIVERSITY
The concept of biodiversity may be analysed in 3
different levels.
• ECOSYSTEM DIVERSITY
• SPECIES DIVERSITY
• GENETIC DIVERSITY

4. COMMUNITY OR ECOSYSTEM DIVERSITY
• A set of biotic components (plants, animals and
microorganisms) and abiotic components (soil,
air, water, etc.) interacting with each other is
known as an ecosystem.
• Ecosystem or ecological diversity means the
richness and complexity of a biological
community, including tropic levels, ecological
processes (which capture energy), food webs
and material recycling.
• The diversity at an ecological level or habitat
level is known as ecosystem diversity. Ex: River
ecosystem- Rivers include fish, aquatic insects,
mussels and a variety of plants that have
adapted.

5. SPECIES DIVERSITY
• Biodiversity at its basic level includes full range of
species on earth from micro-organisms to kingdom
of plants and animals. This richness of species in
an ecosystem is called as ‘species diversity’.
• A discrete group of organisms of the same kind is
known as species. Eg: Cat
• Species diversity is the diversity between different
species.
• The sum of varieties of all living organisms at the
species level is known as species diversity
• There are more than 2 million species on earth,
out of which 1.5 million are identified and
scientifically named as well and there are some
species which we have not discovered at all.

7. GENETIC DIVERSITY
• Genetic diversity is a measure of the variety of versions of
same gene within individual species.
• Within individual species, there are varieties, that are
slightly different from one other. These differences are due
to differences in the combination of genes.
• Ex: (i) Rice varieties - All rice varieties belong to the species
”Oryzasativa". However there are thousands of rice varieties
that show variation at the genetic level in the form of
different size, shape, colour and nutrient content.
(ii)Teak wood varieties: The various teak wood varieties
available are - Indian teak, Burma teak, Malaysian teak etc.

8. BIO-GEOGRAPHICAL CLASSIFICATION OF
INDIA
• India has different climate and different topography in different
regions that is why it is termed as mega-diversity nation.
• India occupies 10th place among plant rich countries of the
world.
• Bio-geographers have classified India into ten bio-geographic
zones with each zone having characteristic climate, soil and
biodiversity.
• These zones are described below
1. Trans-Himalayas 2. Himalayas
3. Desert 4. Semi-arid
5. Western Ghats 6. Deccan plateau
7. Gangetic plain 8. North-east India
9. Islands- The Andaman and Nicobar
10. Coasts India

9. TRANS-HIMALAYAS
• The trans-himalayas are an extension to the
Tibetean plateau.
• This region harbours the high-altitude cold
desert in ladakh (Jammu and Kashmir) and
Lahaul Spiti (Himachal Pradesh).
• It accounts for 5.7% of the country's landmass.
• It has richest wild sheep and goat community in
the world.
• Snow leopard is found here and migratory black-
necked crane.

10. HIMALAYAS
• The Himalayas are the northern boundaries of India.
• The entire mountain chain is running from Kashmir in
the North-west to Assam in the north-east.
• The Himalayas comprise of a diverse range of biotic
provinces and biomes(region where there are different
living organisms and that is very rich or different type).
• The Himalayas cover 7.2% of the country's landmass.
• There are three zones of vegetation in the Himalayan
zone corresponding to three climatic belts.
• First, sub-monotone or lower region from plain foot of
hill upto 5000 to 6000 ft altitude.
• Second, temperate or monotone zone from 5500 to
12000 ft
• Third, airplane zone above 12000 ft – is the limit of
tree growth, above 15000 ft and above snow line,
plant growth is almost nil.

11. DESERT
• The extremely dry area west of the Aravalli hill
range is comprising both the salty desert of
Gujarat and the sandy desert of Rajasthan.
Deserts occupy around 6.9% of the country's land
mass.
• The kinds of deserts found in India are:
The desert of western Rajasthan
The desert of Gujarat
The high-altitude cold desert of Jammu & Kashmir
and Himachal Pradesh.
The Indian deserts have more diversified fauna.

12. SEMI-ARID
• This zone lies between the desert and the
Deccan plateau.
• It includes the Aravalli hill range.
• It overs approximately 15.6% of the
country's landmass.

13. WESTERN GHATS
• The Western Ghats are a mountain range that runs
along the western cost of India.
• They are a range extending north-south from
southern tip of Gujarat in the north to Kanyakumari in
the south.
• The mountains cover an area of about 160,000 sq. km.
• This ghat section covers an extremely diverse range of
biotic provinces and biomes.
• Rainfall in this region is very heavy.
• It covers about 5.8% of the country's landmass.

14. DECCAN PLATEAU
• It is a large triangular plateau south of the Narmada
valley.
• Three sides of the plateau are covered by mountains
slopes towards east.
• Satpura Mountains cover the north while Western
Ghats cover the west side and Eastern Ghats cover
the eastern side of the plateau.
• It is the one of largest zones covering the southern
and south-central plateau with mostly deciduous
trees.
• It covers 4.3% of the country's land mass.

15. GANGETIC PLAIN
• This plain covers the area between the
south Himalayas to the tropic of cancer.
• These plains were formed by the Ganges
river system and are relatively
homogeneous (means area is of same
type).
• This region experience 600 mm rainfall
annually. Sunderbans forests are located in
this region and it covers 11% of the
country's land mass.

16. NORTH-EAST INDIA
• These are plains and non- himalayan ranges of
northeastern India and have a wide variety of
vegetation.
• Is one of the richest flora regions in the
country.
• The regions receives heaviest rainfall
(Cherrapunji) more than 10000 mm.
• The temperature and wetness is also high,
resulting in dense tropical evergreen forest.
• It covers around 5.2% of the country's land
mass.

17. THE ISLANDS
• The islands of Lakshadweep in the
Arabian Sea and Andaman and Nicobar
Islands in the Bay of Bengal have a wide
range coastal vegetation.
• Islands in the Bay of Bengal has almost
300 big and small islands.
• Among these, only five islands are
inhabited. Only tribes are found in the
island of Nicobar.
• These islands have a highly diverse set of
biomes and occupy 0.03% of the country's

18. COASTS OF INDIA
• India has a large coastline distributed both
to the east and west with distinct
differences between the two.
• India has coastline of about 7,516.5 kms.
• Mangrove's vegetation is found in these
regions.