Biodiversity Hotspots: The Concept and the India-Specific Details

What Is a Hotspot? (The Concept Matters More Than the List)

Norman Myers coined the term in 1988. A biodiversity hotspot must satisfy two criteria:

1. Contain at least 1,500 species of endemic vascular plants (found nowhere else on earth)
2. Have lost at least 70% of its original habitat

The second criterion is critical and often ignored by aspirants. A hotspot is not just a rich area — it is a threatened rich area. This is why conservation prioritisation focuses on hotspots: high endemism + high threat = highest urgency.

There are 36 global biodiversity hotspots (as per Conservation International's latest count). India has four.

India's Four Biodiversity Hotspots

1. Western Ghats

• Stretches across Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra
• Over 5,000 species of flowering plants, 139 mammal species, 508 bird species
• High endemism: Lion-tailed macaque, Nilgiri tahr, Malabar giant squirrel
• Overlaps with: Multiple Tiger Reserves, Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve (India's first)

2. Himalaya (includes Eastern Himalaya)

• Encompasses Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, northeastern states
• Includes the hotspot zone that extends into Bhutan, Nepal, Myanmar
• High altitude endemism: Snow leopard, Red panda, multiple rhododendron species
• Ganges-Brahmaputra river systems originate here — biodiversity tied to water security

**3. Indo-Burma (largely northeastern...