Elixir Magazine India Edition Wild Safari (Deeksha Chauhan)

India is home to a large variety of wildlife. It is a biodiversity hotspot with its various ecosystems ranging from the Himalayas in the north to the evergreen rainforests in the south, the desert sands of the west to the marshy mangroves of the east. India, lying within the Indomalayan realm, is home to about 7.6% of mammals, 14.7% of amphibians, 6% of birds, 6.2% of reptilians, and 6.0% of flowering plant species. India's forestlands nurture about 500 species of mammals and 2000+ bird species. This richness of Indian wildlife has been celebrated since time immemorial. Four of India’s national symbols consist of India’s mammals.

India is one of the most biodiverse regions of the world and contains three of the world’s 36 biodiversity hotspots – the Western Ghats, the Eastern Himalayas, and the Indo-Burma hotspot. It is one of the seventeen megadiverse countries. The country has seven Natural World Heritage sites, eleven Biosphere Reserves in the World Network of Biosphere Reserves and thirty-seven Ramsar Wetlands.

In response to the decrease in the numbers of wild animals, human encroachment and poaching activities, the government of India established a system of national parks and protected areas in 1935, which was subsequently expanded. In 1972, India enacted the Wildlife Protection Act and Project Tiger to safeguard crucial habitats. Further, federal protections were promulgated in the 1980s.