CBSE Class 11 Biology OTBA Sample Paper (3)

CBSE Class 11 Biology OTBA Sample Paper (3) CBSE,CCE and NCERT students can refer to the attached file. All educational material on the website has been prepared by the best teachers having more than 20 years of teaching experience in various schools. The study material available on our website for all CBSE classes and subjects have been prepared by teachers from all over the country. All study material has been carefully designed keeping into mind the latest CBSE examination trends.  

2. Theme – “Incredible India”

Abstract:

India is known for its rich heritage of biological diversity. With only 2.5% of the world’s land area, India accounts for 7.8% of recorded species of the world including 46,000 recorded species of plants and 91,000 recorded species of animals. It possesses an exemplary diversity of ecological habitats like forests, grasslands, wetlands, coastal and marine ecosystems, and desert ecosystems. Therefore it is not surprising that India is considered to be one of the world’s 17 ‘mega diverse’ countries in terms of biodiversity.

India takes its commitment to preserve biodiversity very seriously. This is not only because of India’s  international obligations as a signatory to the Convention on Biological Diversity, it is also becauseIndia believes that protecting our biodiversity is a critical national priority as it is linked to local livelihoods of millions of people in the country. Sustainable use of our biodiversity therefore has both ecological and economic value.

This text focuses on the biodiversity found in one of the two major hotspots of biodiversity in India i.e. Western Ghats.

India is a nation, rich in cultural heritage and biodiversity. Biodiversity here is related to socio-cultural practices. Efforts have been made since ancient times to conserve biodiversity either consciously or by relating it to culture and religion. But due to population explosion, urbanization, fragmentation of habitats, climate change and the careless attitude of human being, several species are facing the threat of extinction. This is not only affecting food chains, but is also affecting the livelihood and culture of many Indians as their life is intricately knit around the biodiversity of their area.

India is situated at the tri junction of the three realms- Afro-tropical, Indo-Malayan and Paleo- Arctic. It has characteristic elements from each one of them. This assemblage of three distinct realms makes the country rich and unique in biodiversity.

As measured by the number of plant and animal species, maximum biodiversity is seen in tropical rain forests. For this reason the Western Ghats and the North-East in India are the richest habitats for species diversity. They are also included in the world’s list of hotspots of biodiversity; small geographical areas with high species diversity. Western Ghats have more endemic species, those that are found nowhere else.

Approximately 65 percent of total geographical area in India has been surveyed and approximately 46,000 species of plants and 91,000 species of animals have been described so far by the Botanical Survey of India and Zoological Survey of India respectively. Of these about 4,900 species. flowering plants are endemic to India. They belong to 141 genera spread over 47 families. These are distributed mainly in floral valleys of North–East India, North- West Himalayas, Western Ghats and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

A biogeography region with a significant reservoir of biodiversity that is threatened with destruction is called biodiversity hot-spot. A hot-spot should have at least 0.5 percent of endemic plant species which are found nowhere else. 25 biodiversity hot-spots have been identified at global level, of which two are present in India. These include: Indo- Burma and the Western Ghats and Sri Lanka. These two hot-spots cover less than 2% of the world’s land area but have about 50% of the total terrestrial biodiversity. They contribute prominently in geographic extent, bio-physical, sociocultural diversity and uniqueness. The extent of species endemism in vascular plants alone ranges from 32% to 40% in these mountain ecosystems.

The Indo-Burma hot-spot is one of the most threatened biodiversity hot-spots because of the rapid rate of habitat loss and resource exploitation. It is spread over Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, Bhutan, parts of Nepal, far eastern India and extreme southern China, Mainan islands in South China Sea and Andaman and Nicobar islands in Indian Ocean.

The Western Ghats, also known as the Sahyadri Hills constitute mountain forests along the southwestern side of India and on the neighboring islands of Sri Lanka. This too enjoys the status of UNESCO World Heritage site. The range runs north to south along the Western edge of the Deccan Plateau and separates the plateau from a narrow coastal plain called the Konkan along the Arabian Sea. The range starts near the border of Gujarat and Maharashtra, south of Tapti river and runs over 1600 Km through the states of Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala ending at the southern tip of India. It is one of the world’s ten hottest biodiversity hotspots.

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