ABSTRACT
India is one of the ten richest countries in the world in terms of biodiversity. It comprises 16 forest types (Champion and Seth, 1968) ranging from arid scrub to alpine forests in 10 bio-zones (Rodgers and Panwar, 1988). India has 45,000 plant species (7 per cent of the world’s known flora) and 81,000 animal species (6.4 per cent of the world’s known fauna), and is situated at the crossroads between east and west in biogeographic terms.
