Biodiversity Hotspots in India: All 4 Explained

India shares four of the world’s richest and most threatened natural regions. These biodiversity hotspots in India are the Himalaya, Indo-Burma, the Western Ghats and Sri Lanka, and Sundaland. Each holds many plants and animals found nowhere else on Earth, and each is losing natural habitat to human pressure.

This article belongs to our main guide on biodiversity: meaning, types, importance and threats. Here we take the four hotspots one at a time. For each, you will find where it lies in India, what makes it special, which species show its uniqueness and what threatens it. A summary table comes first, so you can revise quickly before an exam.

What is a biodiversity hotspot?

Conservation money and trained staff are always short. So scientists asked a simple question: which places should be saved first? Their answer was a set of priority regions called biodiversity hotspots.

NCERT’s Class 12 Biology book explains the idea in three parts. A hotspot has:

1. Very high species richness – a large number of species live there.
2. A high degree of endemism – many of those species are confined to that region alone.
3. Accelerated habitat loss – its natural cover is disappearing quickly.

A region needs all three features to qualify. A forest full of species but under little threat is not a hotspot. Neither is a damaged area with few unique species.

Conservation International, the organisation behind the global list, turns this idea into two firm tests. A region must hold at least 1,500 endemic plant species. It must also have lost at least 70 per cent of its original natural vegetation. Our guide to biodiversity hotspots of the world shows how the full global list was put together.

How many biodiversity hotspots are there in the world?

According to NCERT’s Class 12 book, the world has 34 hotspots. Scientists first identified 25, and nine more were added later. Newer official counts are higher. The Environment Ministry’s 2019 overview speaks of 35 global hotspots, while a PIB release dated 9 October 2025 puts the total at 36. India’s share has stayed at four throughout.

The NCERT chapter (Reprint 2026-27) makes two further points. All hotspots put together cover less than 2 per cent of the Earth’s land area. Yet they hold so many species that strict protection could cut ongoing mass extinctions by almost 30 per cent. That is why the hotspot idea guides so much conservation planning.

Which are the 4 biodiversity hotspots in India?

India’s Fourth National Report to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), published in 2009, names the four hotspots as the Himalaya, Indo-Burma, the Western Ghats and Sri Lanka, and Sundaland. The PIB release of October 2025 lists the same four. Each hotspot is much larger than India’s share of it. The Environment Ministry’s 2019 overview explains which Indian area belongs to which hotspot.

Names vary slightly between official sources. Some say “Himalaya”, others “Eastern Himalaya” or “the Himalayas”. The six Western Ghats states come from the draft eco-sensitive area described later. The official documents used here name regions rather than drawing exact boundaries inside India. In an exam, use the four official hotspot names and add the Indian region in brackets.

The plant figures in the table come from India’s Fourth National Report to the CBD (2009), which drew them from the global hotspots database. They describe each hotspot as a whole, not just the part inside India.

How do the four hotspots compare?

The same 2009 report compared the four hotspots side by side. Here are a few of its figures. Remember that these cover the entire hotspot, including other countries.

Look at the first and last rows. Indo-Burma and Sundaland are vast, so India holds only a small corner of each. The Western Ghats and Sri Lanka hotspot is the smallest, yet it had the most people per square kilometre of the four. That crowding helps explain why its forests face such heavy pressure.

1. Himalaya hotspot: what makes it special?

Where it is in India: The Environment Ministry’s 2019 overview describes this hotspot as the Eastern Himalaya. It comprises the north-eastern Himalayas of India, together with Bhutan and Nepal. A 2020 book from the G.B. Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment, an Environment Ministry institute, takes a wider view: the Indian Himalayan Region, running about 2,500 km from Jammu and Kashmir in the west to Arunachal Pradesh in the east, makes up a large part of the Himalayan hotspot.

Why it is rich: Steep slopes pack many climates into a short distance. Within a few kilometres, a traveller can pass from warm valley forest to cold alpine meadow. Each band of altitude supports its own community of plants and animals.

Endemism: India’s Fourth National Report (2009) records about 10,000 species of vascular plants in the Himalayan hotspot. Of these, 3,160 are endemic, or 31.6 per cent. The report also notes that 15 of the region’s 979 bird species are endemic. A large number of orchids have been reported from Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.

Example species named in the report:

• Golden langur – a monkey with a restricted range in the Eastern Himalaya.
• Pygmy hog – a tiny wild pig limited to grasslands of the Terai-Duar savannah and Manas National Park.
• Himalayan tahr – a wild goat of steep rocky slopes.
• Namdapha flying squirrel – described from a single specimen collected in Namdapha National Park.

Threats: The same report lists development projects that change land use and break up habitats. Poaching of large mammals such as tigers and rhinoceroses is another problem. Over-collection of valuable medicinal herbs adds further pressure.

2. Indo-Burma hotspot: which part of India is in it?

Where it is in India: According to the Environment Ministry’s 2019 overview, India’s share is parts of Assam and Meghalaya in the north-eastern region. Indo-Burma is a huge hotspot, and nearly all of it lies beyond India’s borders.

Why it is rich: North-east India sits where the plants and animals of the Indian subcontinent meet those of South-east Asia. Heavy rainfall and hilly land create many separate habitats. Separate habitats allow new species to evolve in isolation.

Endemism: The Fourth National Report (2009) credits the Indo-Burma hotspot as a whole with about 7,000 endemic plant species. It also counts 25 endemic threatened mammals across the hotspot. Within India, the report groups the Eastern Himalaya and north-eastern region together as rich in endemic plants, with about 2,500 such species.

A living museum of plants: The north-east also holds many primitive flowering plants. Because of this, the botanist Takhtajan (1969) called the region the “Cradle of Flowering Plants”, as the 2009 report records.

Threats: Forest clearing for farming, settlements and roads breaks continuous forest into small patches. Small patches cannot support wide-ranging animals. Our article on the causes and effects of biodiversity loss explains how habitat fragmentation pushes species towards extinction.

3. Western Ghats and Sri Lanka hotspot: where is it?

Where it is in India: The Environment Ministry’s 2019 overview says the Western Ghats run parallel to the west coast of the peninsula for almost 1,600 km. They stretch from the mouth of the river Tapti to the south of India. A PIB release of 18 July 2022 reports a draft Western Ghats Ecologically Sensitive Area of 56,825 km² across six states. These are Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

Why it is rich: The same overview notes that the Ghats are older than the Himalaya. Their high forests influence the monsoon. It calls the region one of the world’s eight “hottest hotspots” of biological diversity. Its forests include some of the best non-equatorial tropical evergreen forests on the planet.

Endemism: India’s Fourth National Report (2009) gives these points for the Western Ghats:

• Almost one-third of India’s flowering plant species are found here.
• About 1,500 flowering plant species, or 38 per cent, are endemic (MoEF, 2009).
• 63 per cent of India’s evergreen woody plants are endemic to the Ghats (MoEF, 2009).
• In its reptiles, amphibians and fish, more than half of all species are endemic, says the 2009 report.

Frogs make this hotspot famous. NCERT’s Class 12 book notes that the Western Ghats have a greater diversity of amphibians than the Eastern Ghats.

Unique habitats: The high hills hold shola grasslands, rolling grassy slopes broken by patches of stunted forest. The 2009 report says these are unique to the region and shelter many endemic species. The Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, spread over Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka, was the first biosphere reserve set up in India.

Threats: Large areas of forest were logged in the past. Others were cleared for tea, coffee, rubber, teak and eucalyptus plantations, reservoirs, roads and railways. The 2009 report says over 20 per cent of the original forest cover remains more or less pristine, while the rest faces varying human pressure. Mass tourism, grazing and forest fires add to the strain.

The Sri Lankan part of this hotspot lies across the sea. Shared ancestry links many of the island’s plants and animals with those of the Ghats.

4. Sundaland hotspot: why are the Nicobar Islands included?

Where it is in India: The Environment Ministry’s 2019 overview names the Nicobar Islands, and no other Indian area, as India’s part of Sundaland. This is the only Indian hotspot share made up entirely of islands. Almost all of Sundaland lies outside India.

Why it is rich: Islands are natural laboratories of evolution. Species cut off by the sea slowly change and become new species. Many island species have tiny ranges, which makes them both unique and vulnerable.

Endemism: Across the whole hotspot, the Fourth National Report (2009) lists about 15,000 endemic plant species. It counts 60 endemic threatened mammals and 43 endemic threatened birds in Sundaland. For the Andaman and Nicobar Islands together, the report records about 250 endemic plant species. Their lichens show 24 per cent endemism, higher than the Western Ghats (20 per cent) or the Eastern Himalaya (18 per cent).

Protection: The Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve lies in this part of India. The 2009 report lists it among the country’s biosphere reserves, with an area of about 885 km².

Threats: Small islands have little room for species to escape. Habitat loss on one island can wipe out a species completely. The tsunami of 26 December 2004 also damaged the islands’ coasts. The 2009 report links a small fall in India’s mangrove cover mainly to that event.

How can you find out the biodiversity hotspots of India?

Many school projects ask students to find out the biodiversity hotspots of India and mark them on a map. Follow these steps:

1. Start from an official list. Use the four names in India’s Fourth National Report to the CBD: Himalaya, Indo-Burma, Western Ghats and Sri Lanka, and Sundaland.
2. Match each hotspot to its Indian region. For the Himalaya, shade the Indian Himalaya from Jammu and Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh, noting that the 2019 overview names only its north-eastern part. Then add parts of Assam and Meghalaya, the Western Ghats and the Nicobar Islands from the summary table above.
3. Shade the regions on an outline map of India. Use a different colour for each hotspot and add a key.
4. Mark protected areas. Good examples are Namdapha National Park (Himalaya), the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve (Western Ghats) and the Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve (Sundaland).
5. Add one endemic species per hotspot. Use the examples given in this article.
6. Write the date and source of your list, because global totals change over time.

To understand why so many unique species cluster in these places, read our guide to endemic species and examples from India. For the wider picture of India’s ten biogeographic regions, see the biodiversity of India: megadiversity, zones and species.

How are India’s biodiversity hotspots protected?

India protects its hotspots in several ways. Most of the work is in situ, meaning species are protected where they naturally live.

• Protected areas: National parks, wildlife sanctuaries and biosphere reserves cover key forests in every hotspot. The 2009 report notes that over 10 per cent of the Western Ghats, about 13,692 km², lay under legally protected areas.
• Eco-sensitive areas: The draft Western Ghats Ecologically Sensitive Area aims to limit harmful activities across the range, as described above.
• Himalayan programmes: The Environment Ministry’s 2019 overview mentions the National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystems. Under it, studies support the conservation and sustainable use of Himalayan biodiversity.
• People and traditional knowledge: The same overview says local solutions based on traditional knowledge are encouraged in hotspot areas. In the Western Ghats, local communities have helped list the services that ecosystems provide.

Protection outside natural homes, in zoos, gardens and seed banks, acts as a back-up. Compare both methods in our guide to in situ and ex situ conservation of biodiversity.

Sources

• NCERT Class 12 Biology, Chapter 13: Biodiversity and Conservation
• MoEFCC: Implementation of India’s National Biodiversity Action Plan, An Overview 2019
• MoEF: India’s Fourth National Report to the Convention on Biological Diversity (2009)
• PIB: Demarcating buffer zones under ESZ and Western Ghats ESA, 18 July 2022
• PIB: Launch of India’s National Red List Roadmap, 9 October 2025
• Conservation International: What are biodiversity hotspots?
• G.B. Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment: Tree Diversity of Indian Himalayan Region (2020)