Biodiversity and its conservation

Biodiversity and its conservation

A wide variety of living organisms including plants, animals and micro-organisms with whom we share this planet earth makes the world a beautiful place to live in. Living organisms exist almost everywhere from mountain peaks to the ocean depths; from deserts to the rainforests. They vary in their habit and behaviour, shape, size and colour. The remarkable diversity of living  organisms  forms  an  inseparable  and significant part of our planet, however, the ever increasing human population is posing serious threats to bio-diversity. In this chapter, we shall discuss biodiversity – concepts, levels, magnitude and  patterns,  importance  of  biodiversity, biogeographical  regions  of  India,  threats  to biodiversity, causes of biodiversity loss, extinction, and biodiversity conservation.