Biodiversity of Eastern Himalaya

Eastern Himalaya forms a distinct phytogeographic region comprising Nepal, Bhutan, states of East and North-East India, and a contiguous sector of Yunnan province in South-Western China. The Eastern Himalayas harbor a staggering 10,000 plant species, 300 mammal species, 977 bird species, 176 reptiles, 105 amphibians and 269 types of freshwater fish. The region also has the highest density of Bengal tigers in the world and is the last bastion of the charismatic greater one-horned rhino.

Flora of Eastern Himalaya

• In the whole of Eastern Himalaya, out of the 10000 plant species, around 39% are endemic.
• At least 55 flowering plants endemic to this area are recognised as rare, for example, the Pitcher Plant (Nepenthes khasiana).
• Eastern Himalaya is a rich centre of primitive flowering plants and is popularly known as the ‘Çradle of Speciation’. The floral diversity in this region includes a vivid spectrum of diverse species including monocots and dicots.
• This region is also known as as the centre of origin and diversification of five palms of commercial importance coconut, arecanut, palmyra palm, sugar palm and wild date palm.
• Tea (Thea sinensis) has been cultivated in this region for the last 4,000 years. Many wild and allied species of tea, the leaves of which are used as a substitute for tea, are found in the North East, in their natural habitats.
• The Taxol plant or Himalayan Yew (Taxus wallichiana) is sparsely distributed in the region and is listed under the red data category due to its overexploitation for extraction of a drug effectively used against various kinds of breast and ovarian cancer.

Fauna of Eastern Himalaya

• More than half (63%) of the genera of land mammals in India are found in Eastern Himalaya. During the last four decades, two new mammals have been discovered from the region viz. Golden Langur from Assam-Bhutan region, and Namdapha Flying Squirrel from Arunachal Pradesh.
• Not only that, a 100-million year-old gecko, the oldest fossil gecko species known to science, was discovered in an amber mine in the Hukawng Valley in the northern Myanmar.
• More than 60 per cent of the bird species found in India have been recorded in the North East. The region also hosts two endemic genera of lizards, and 35 endemic reptilian species, including two turtles. Of the 240 Indian amphibian species, at least 68 species are known to occur in the North East, 20 of which are endemic.
• From Namdapha National Park itself, a new genus of mammal, a new subspecies of a bird, six new amphibians species, four new species of fish, at least 15 new species of beetles and six new species of flies have been discovered.