Biodiversity Hotspots and Conservation: What the Exam Expects
April 15, 20267 min read
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:
Contain at least 1,500 species of endemic vascular plants (found nowhere else on earth)
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
Key distinction for Prelims: A National Park cannot have any human habitation or resource use inside it. A Wildlife Sanctuary allows pre-existing rights of local communities. A Biosphere Reserve is not a legal category under Wildlife Protection Act — it is an UNESCO designation.
Why Legal Protection Alone Fails
This is the Mains-level question. Protected areas cover only about 5% of India's land. Most biodiversity exists in non-protected areas — agricultural landscapes, forests outside PAs, urban green spaces.
The landscape approach to conservation argues for corridors between protected areas (Elephant corridors, Tiger corridors) to allow genetic exchange. Isolated populations in small parks face inbreeding and local extinction.
Project-specific lessons:
Project Tiger (1973): Initial success masked a larger problem — tigers were flourishing in reserves but poaching continued outside. The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) was formed after the Sariska scandal (2004-05, tigers found locally extinct due to poaching)
Project Elephant: Less funded and visible than Project Tiger, despite elephants being better ecosystem indicators. Human-elephant conflict is increasing as corridors are fragmented by infrastructure
Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) — Key for Prelims
Adopted at Rio Earth Summit, 1992
Three objectives: Conservation, Sustainable use, Fair and equitable sharing of benefits from genetic resources
Nagoya Protocol (2010): Deals specifically with Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) of genetic resources
Kunming-Montreal Framework (2022): "30x30" target — protect 30% of land and ocean by 2030
India is a signatory to CBD; Biological Diversity Act 2002 is the domestic legislation