EIACP(Environmental Information,Awareness,Capcity Building & Livelihood Programme) Centre on Biodiversity (Fauna)- the Centre is one of 85 network partners of the Environmental Information,Awareness,Capcity Building & Livelihood Programme(EIACP), the focal point of which is located in the Environmental Information,Awareness,Capcity Building & Livelihood Programme(EIACP)Government of India at New Delhi.
Subject Area of the centre |
Faunal Diversity. |
Year of establishment |
Set up in 1993 to deal with Animal Ecology. Subject node of the centre was changed to Faunal Diversity in 1996 |
Faunal Diversity of India India is recognized as one of the seventeen mega diversity countries of the world sharing four of the global biodiversity hot spots- the Himalaya (northwestern and northeastern states of India), Indo-Burma (across north-eastern India, south of the Brahmaputra River), Western Ghats and Sri Lanka (the Western Ghats of southwestern India) and Sundaland (the Nicobar Island). There are about 1.7 million living species described from all over the world and another 15 million species are expected to be discovered. In India till date nearly 92,000 species of animals have been described, but a large number of species are yet to be discovered especially from the lower invertebrate groups occurring in various ecosystems. India is very rich in terms of biological diversity due to its unique bio geographical location, diversified climatic conditions and enormous ecodiversity and geodiversity. According to world biogeographic classification, India represents two of the major realms (the Palaearctic and Indi-Malayan) and three biomes (Tropical Humid Forests, Tropical Dry/Deciduous Forests and Warm Deserts/ Semi-Deserts). With only about 2.4% of world’s total land surface, India is known to have over 7.50% of the species of animals that the world holds and this percentage accounts nearly for about 92,000 species so far known. About EIACP(Environmental Information,Awareness,Capcity Building & Livelihood Programme) ZSI Headquarters is functioning as the host of the Environmental Information,Awareness,Capcity Building & Livelihood Programme (EIACP) on faunal diversity in India. The primary objectives of EIACP are, to build up storage, retrieval and dissemination capabilities, with ultimate objective of dissemination of information speedily to the users in the field of animal diversity; to provide national environmental information system relating to the fauna of the country; to promote national and international co-operation and Liaison for exchange of information relating to the subject area; to promote exchange of information relating to the subject area amongst developing countries and to promote, support and assist education and personal training programmes designed to exchange animal biodiversity related information processing and utilizing capabilities. EIACP is regularly brining out Newsletters, Bibliographic references and documents related to the faunal diversity and responding to queries by supplying substantive information on faunal diversity in the form of published reports, extracts and other unpublished and analyzed information. Initiatives have also been taken to build a consortium of workers on faunal diversity from all corners of India, where upon all related works of all the workers shall be placed on an e-platform for easy accessibility to all the viewers which is also intended to build a network of communications amongst all such scientists throughout India.
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