This document discusses flora and fauna. It defines flora as plant life in a region and fauna as animal life. It explains that humans and all organisms depend on plants, as plants provide food, oxygen, soil enrichment, and prevent erosion. Animals play a key role in balancing ecology by consuming plants and displaying behaviors unlike plants. The document then focuses on the flora and fauna of India, describing its rich diversity of over 16,000 flowering plants and 45,000 total species, as well as its variety of large mammals. It notes that while protected areas help preserve wildlife, encroachment threatens it, with causes of depletion including colonial activities, shifting agriculture, poaching, and development.

1. FLORA
&
FAUNA

2. FLORA
 Flora is the plant life occurring in a particular
region or time, generally the naturally occurring
or indigenous—native plant life. The
corresponding term for animal life is fauna.
Flora, fauna and other forms of life such as
fungi are collectively referred to as biota

3.  Human beings are completely dependent upon
plants. Directly or indirectly, plants provide food,
clothing, fuel, shelter, and many other necessities
of life. Humankind's dependence on crops such as
wheat and corn (maize) is obvious, but without
grass and grain the livestock that provide people
with food and other animal products could not
survive either.
 Plants are essential parts of ecosystems. Without
them, all organisms would soon run out of food.

4.  Plants absorb minerals, such as nitrogen, potassium,
and phosphorus, from the soil. These are stored in
plant tissues and are an essential part of the diet of
animals that eat plants.
 Plants help form, enrich, and stabilize soil. Mosses
help break down and crumble rock into soil. The roots
of herbs and trees also contribute to this process.
 Decaying leaves and other plant material increase the
fertility of soil.
 Plant roots stabilize soil and prevent erosion.

5. Flora (plants) are classified as follows:

6. FAUNA
 Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular
region or time. The corresponding term for plants is
flora. Flora, fauna and other forms of life such as fungi
are collectively referred to as biota.
 “Fauna” comes from the Latin names Fauna, a Roman
goddess of earth and fertility, the Roman god Faunus,
and the related forest spirits called Fauns.

7.  Animals as the consumers, play a key role balancing
the ecology.
 Animals display some key differences that
distinguish them from other living beings.
 For example, what is the difference between a cow
and grass? A cow moves around in the pasture
eating grass. It runs toward you when you offer it a
bunch of leaves and shows pleasure when you
stroke its head. The grass, however, is rooted to
one place. It does not respond behaviorally to
people or to the cow in any way.

8. Fauna (animals) are classified as follows:

9. FLORA AND FAUNA OF
INDIA

10. FLORA OF INDIA
 The flora of India is one of the richest in the world due
to the wide range of climate, topology and habitat in
the country.
 There are estimated to be over 16,000 species of
flowering plants in India, which constitute some 6-7
percent of the total plant species in the world.
 India is home to more than 45,000 species of plants,
including a variety of endemics.

11.  The use of plants as a source of medicines has been an
integral part of life in India from the earliest times.
 There are more than 3000 Indian plant species officially
documented as possessing great medicinal potential.
India is divided into eight main floristic regions : Western
Himalayas, Eastern Himalayas, Assam, Indus plain,
Ganges plain, the Deccan, Malabar and the Andaman
Islands.

12. FAUNA OF INDIA
 India has some of the world's most bio diverse
regions. The political boundaries of India
encompass a wide range of Eco zones—desert,
high mountains, highlands, tropical and
temperate forests, swamplands, plains,
grasslands, areas surrounding rivers, as well as
islands
 India, for the most part, lies within the
Indomalaya Eco zone, with the upper reaches of
the Himalayas forming part of the Palearctic Eco
zone; the contours of 2000 to 2500m are
considered to be the altitudinal boundary
between the Indo-Malayan and Palearctic zones.

13.  In recent decades, human encroachment has posed a
threat to India's wildlife; in response, the system
of national parks and protected areas, first established
in 1935, was substantially expanded.
 India now hosts 18 biosphere reserves, 10 of which
are part of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves;
26 wetlands are registered under the Ramsar
Convention.
 India is home to several well-known large mammals,
including the Asian elephants, Bengal and Indochinese
Tigers, Asiatic lions, Snow leopards, Clouded leopards,
Indian leopards, Indian sloth bear and Indian
rhinoceros etc.

14. CAUSES OF DEPLETION OF FLORA AND FAUNA:
 FLORA: The greatest damage inflicted on Indian
forests was during the colonial period due to the
expansion of the railways, agriculture, scientific
activities etc. Even after the independence, agriculture
expansion continues to be one of the major causes of
depletion of forest resources. Substantial parts of the
tribal belts, have deforested or degraded by shifting
cultivation (JHUM), a type of ‘slash and a burn’
agriculture.
 FAUNA: Poaching, Deforestation, Urbanization
Industrialization, Agricultural expansion, Mining.