SHILLONG, April 1: Faunal Diversity of Biogeographic Zones of India: North-East, a book compiled by the scientists of the Zoological Survey of India, Shillong, was released on Thursday.
The book contains updated information on the faunal diversity of North East biogeographic zone comprising two biotic provinces – the Brahmaputra Valley and North East Hills.
Altogether, 18,527 species of fauna under 15 phyla from Protozoa to Chordata have been documented from the region, representing about 18 per cent of the total fauna known from India.
Phylum Arthropoda with 14,956 species represents more than 80 per cent of the overall faunal diversity of the region.
With regard to the biotic provinces, North East Hills includes 14,838 species, while the Brahmaputra Valley has 8,832 species.
Meghalaya has 9,853 species, closely followed by Assam with 9,607 species, whereas Manipur with 5,036 species, Nagaland with 3,869 species, Tripura with 3,605 species and Mizoram with 3,020 species have also been documented.
Though the North East Biogeographic Zone constitutes only about 5.21 per cent of the total Indian landmass, the Northeastern region harbours a rich faunal diversity, attributable to it being strategically positioned as a transition zone between Indo-Malayan and Indo-Chinese biogeographical regions and also being the meeting point of the Himalayan mountains and Peninsular India.
Out of 718 threatened species of fauna in the country, 153 species are distributed in the North East representing about 22.35 per cent of the total threatened fauna of India.
Six species of Arthropods, 49 species of fish, six species of amphibians, 17 species of reptiles, 42 species of birds and 33 species of mammals are included in the threatened list.
Among the six states, Assam with 100 species has the highest numbers of threatened animals.
Present during the book release function were BK Lyngwa, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest, and HC Chaudhary, Chief Wildlife Warden, who were the chief guest and guest of honour, respectively.
Speaking during the programme, the Director of ZSI, Dr Kailash Chandra, apprised the gathering of the hard work put in during the compilation of this book, which is a comprehensive and exhaustive account of the faunal resources of the North-East Biogeographic Zone.
On the other hand, Dr C Raghunathan, scientist-E of ZSI, Kolkata, during his address, highlighted the rich biodiversity of the studied region that includes six of the eight Northeastern states — Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura.
