Threats to biodiversity

Even though India ranks among the 17 identified mega-biodiverse countries in the world, it still faces substantial threats to its biodiversity. Beyond purely natural causes, direct and indirect human activity is today's dominant driver of habitat loss and biodiversity loss: fragmentation and degradation from agricultural expansion, extraction (mining, fishing, logging, harvesting) and development (settlements, industry and associated infrastructure) all lead to habitat loss, and that loss in turn fragments populations into isolated, small, scattered groups that are far more prone to becoming endangered. Beyond habitat pressure itself, certain biological traits make particular species disproportionately vulnerable — a specialised diet, a specialised habitat requirement, large body size, an already-small population, a limited geographic range, or high economic or commercial value. Large mammals, simply by virtue of their size, need larger areas to secure food, cover and mates than smaller mammals do — an individual lion's home range can run to about 100 square kilometres — and species with specialised diets, such as carnivores and frugivores, must forage across far larger areas th …