Question

What accounts for the greater ecological diversity of India?

Answer 1

Ecological diversity of India:

India lies in the tropical region of the Northern hemisphere between the latitudes $8^o{4}^{{}^{\prime }}N\text{to}{37}^o{6}^{{}^{\prime }}N$.

This geographical position of being near the equator promotes biodiversity in India in the following ways:

• Less seasonal variations promote niche specialisation and lead to a greater species diversity.
• Availability of higher solar radiation leads to higher productivity which indirectly contributes to greater diversity.
• India has different climatic zones like hot and dry, warm and humid, cold and cloudy etc., These different climatic zones support different species of plants and animals.
• India is also one of the centres of origin of many species, hence it is ecologically diverse.