Hotspots

Hotspots are regions marked out by an unusually high concentration of endemic species that are simultaneously experiencing rapid habitat modification and loss. Norman Myers, who coined the term, defined hotspots as regions that harbour a great diversity of endemic species while also having been significantly impacted and altered by human activity. The formal threshold for a hotspot is precise: a region must support at least 1,500 endemic vascular plant species — about 0.5% of the world's total — and must already have lost more than 70% of its original vegetation. By this measure there are 35 recognised biodiversity hotspots worldwide, and India is home to four of them, as recognised by ENVIS: the Himalaya (covering the entire Indian Himalayan region), the Western Ghats, Indo-Burma (covering all of North-East India except Assam and the Andaman Islands, extending into Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, …