Extinction or elimination of a species is a natural process of evolution. In the geologic period the earth has experienced mass extinctions. During evolution, species have died out and have been replaced by others. However, the rate of loss of species in geologic past has been a slow process, keeping in view the vast span of time going back to 444 million years.
The process of extinction has become particularly fast in the recent years of civilization. Edward O. Wilson prefers the acronym HIPPO, standing for habitat destruction, invasive species, pollution, human overpopulation, and over-harvesting
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Major Causes and Issues Related to Biodiversity
Following are the major causes and issues related to threats to biodiversity:
1. Habitat destruction
Habitat destruction has played a key role in extinctions, especially related to tropical forest destruction. Factors contributing to habitat loss are: overpopulation, deforestation, pollution (air pollution, water pollution, soil contamination) and global warming or climate change.
Habitat size and numbers of species are systematically related. Physically larger species and those living at lower latitudes or in forests or oceans are more sensitive to reduction in habitat area. Conversion to "trivial" standardized ecosystems (e.g., monoculture following deforestation) effectively destroys habitat for the more diverse species that preceded the conversion. In some countries lack of property rights or lax law/regulatory enforcement necessarily leads to biodiversity loss (degradation costs having to be supported by the community)
2. Poaching
Illegal trade of wildlife products by killing prohibited endangered animals i.e. poaching is another threat to wildlife. Despite international ban on trade in products from endangered species, smuggling of wildlife items like furs, hides, horns, tusks, live specimens and herbal products worth millions of dollars per year continues, the developing nations in Asia, Latin America and Africa are the richest source of biodiversity and have enormous wealth of wildlife. The rich countries in Europe and North America and some affluent countries in Asia like Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong are the major importers of the wildlife products or wildlife itself. The trading of such wild life products is highly profit making for the poachers who just hunt these prohibited wild lives and smuggle it to other countries mediated through mafia. The worst part is that for every live animal that actually gets into the market about 50 additional animals are caught and killed. If you are fond of rare plants, fish or birds, please make sure that you are not going to the endangered species or wild-caught species. Doing so will help in checking further decline of these species. Also do not purchase fur coat, purse or bag, or items made of crocodile skin or python skin. You will certainly help in preserving biodiversity by doing so.
3. Man-Wildlife Conflicts
We have discussed about the need to preserve and protect wildlife. However, sometimes we come across conflicting situations when wildlife starts causing immense damage and danger to man and under such conditions it becomes very difficult for the forest department to pacify the affected villages and gain local support for wildlife conservation. Instances of man animal conflicts keep on coming to lime light from several states in our country.
In Sambalpur, Orissa 195 humans were killed in the last 5years by elephants. In retaliation the villagers killed 95 elephants in the border region of Kote-Chamarajanagar belt in Mysore have been reported recently. The man-elephant conflict in this region has arisen because of massive damage done by the elephants to the farmer’s cotton and sugarcane crops. The agonized villagers electrocute the elephants and sometimes hide explosives in the sugarcane fields, which explode as the elephants intrude into their fields. In fact, more killings are done by locals than by poachers.
Causes of Man-animal conflicts
Dwindling habitats of tigers, elephants, rhinos and bears due to shrinking forests cover are compelled to move outside the forests and attack the field or sometimes even humans. Human encroachment into the forest areas has rendered all forest living animals to trespass the borders of human civilizations. This is because the conflicts between man and the wildlife have increased since it is an issue of survival of both
Invasive Non-Native Species
Species that are non-native to a particular area can sometimes spread very quickly, for example the zebra mussel and Japanese knotweed have spread rapidly in Ireland in the past two decades. As a result, these species can destabilize an ecosystem by altering habitats affecting food webs.
Pollution/Litter
As you will remember from the Litter and Waste theme, pollution is always caused by humans. Pollution can have a huge impact, altering the balance within ecosystems, and is the cause of death for millions of animals and plants around the world every year.
Land Use Change/Increased Infrastructure Development
This is the alteration of natural areas by humans, for example, the clearing of huge areas of rainforest in South America for farming. In Ireland, upland open habitats, such as rough grassland, scrub and heath, have been changed by agriculture and afforestation.
Intensive Farming Practices
Extensive use and concentrations of chemical and/or biological pesticides and the removal of hedgerows are typical practices in modern-day intensive farming. Often large areas of land are planted with a single crop (monocultures) which greatly reduces the level of biodiversity in that area.
Climate Change
It is now widely accepted that the current global rate of change in climate is as a result of human activity. As global air or sea temperature changes, even by just 1 or 2 degrees, the habitats in which species live will also change and may even become uninhabitable to some species.
ENDANGERED AND ENDEMIC SPECIES
Endangered species A species whose numbers are reduced to the point. That means endangered species are in immediate danger of extinction. The International Union Conservation of Nature ( IUCN ) classified the species of plants and animals as:
(a) Endangered species
(b) Threatened species: Species ( including animals, plants, fungi, etc.) which are vulnerable to endangerment in the near future)
(c) Rare species : Among the important endangered animal species, Indian wild ass; the Kashmir stag, the Golden Langur etc .. are considered highly endangered. There are also endangered bird species like Siberian crane; the great Indian Bustard; the florican etc. The IUCN published the data on endangered species of both plants and animals of India. The data symbolizes the working signal for those species which are endangered and if not protected are likely to become extinct in near future.
A species is said to be extinct when it is not seen in the wild for 50 years at a stretch e.g. Dodo, Passenger Pigeon.
A species is said to be endangered when its number has been reduced to a critical level or whose habitat, have been drastically reduced and if such species is not protected and conserved, it is in immediate danger of extinction.
Endangered species of India
The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources(IUCN) publishes the Red Data Book which include the list of endangered species of plants and animals. The red data symbolizes the warning signal for those species which are endangered and if not protected are likely to become extinct in near future.
The animals that are listed under the critically endangered category are as under:
1) Malabar Large Spotted Civet
2) Namdapha Flying Squirrel
3) Salim Ali's FruitBat
4) Sumatran Rhinoceros
Endangered Species areas under:
1) Asiatic Lion
2) Asiatic Black Bear
3) Desert Cat
4) Great Indian Rhinoceros
5) Indian Elephant (or) Asian Elephant
Threatened Species areas under:
1) Indian Wild Ass
2) Leopard
Endemic species of India
India has two biodiversity hot-spots and thus possesses a large number of endemic species. The endemic species are those taxa whose distribution is confined to a restricted area due to their specific ecological niches and edaphic gradients. Therefore, the habitats of endemic species are far more vulnerable than other species. Endemic species once lost, it is a loss of biodiversity of these species forever.
In India there are about 5725 endemic taxa of angiosperms (33.5% of Indian flora) which are located in 25 hot spots. The major hotspots in India which contain largest number of endemic plant species are the Southern Western Ghats and Eastern Himalayas with 1286 and 1808 endemic species respectively. There are about 1272 species of endemic angiosperms out of 3800 species occurring in Kerala (33.5% of Kerala flora) which represent 22.6% of Indian endemics.
Seventy percent of the 1272 species of endemics have the major areas of distribution in Kerala with spill over in adjacent regions. On the basis of the study of the distributional range, about 102 endemic species occur exclusively in Kerala. A large number out of a total of 81,000 of animals in our country is endemic. The Western Ghats are particularly rich in amphibians (frogs, toads etc) and reptiles (lizards, crocodiles etc) about 62% amphibians and 50% lizards are endemic to Western Ghats.