ECOSYSTEMS
FOUND
THROUGHOUT
INDIA
Diverse. Mysterious. Two adjectives that perfectly describe the ecosystems of India. Iconic creatures like Indian elephants, sloth bears, and Asiatic lions are native to India’s Gir Forest. Yet there is more to this amazing country than rich forests and dense jungles. From snow-covered mountains to deserts and wetlands, India’s amazingly diverse ecosystems have captured the imaginations of writers, explorers, and artists for centuries.
India’s biodiversity has been a source of interest for
centuries. In the 17th century, an artist named Ustād
Mansūr traveled with the Mughal emperor, Jahāngīr,
and painted scientifically accurate portraits of
India’s plants and animals. During his travels, Ustād
painted the best surviving portrait of a dodo, a
flightless bird that went extinct in 1681. This painting
is on display at the Hermitage Museum in Saint
Petersburg, Russia.
In northern India, a mountain range called the Himalayas makes up one of the region’s most important ecosystems. Among the pinnacles, well-hidden due to their spotted, white-gray fur, shy snow leopards lurk among the snowy rocks. Musk deer, mouse-like pikas, bearded vultures, and blue sheep live in this ecosystem too. In the surrounding forests and plains, one can find clouded leopards, Himalayan brown bears, and herds of wild yak. Red pandas even live up in the trees, foraging and munching on bamboo.
During the 19th century, the British Empire hired Indian explorers, like Nain Singh Rawat
(1830–1882), to survey the Himalayas on foot. Rawat measured distance by counting every step he took. Every 2,000 paces equaled one mile, and Rawat walked thousands of miles on his many journeys. On one trek through Tibet, which borders India to the north, Rawat located gold mines way up in the mountains. Perhaps he saw snow leopards too!
The Thar Desert in India and Pakistan gets very little rain, but there is tremendous biodiversity in this extreme ecosystem. Indian gazelles called chinkara, blackbuck, desert foxes, and caracals all call this region home. Tawny eagles and great Indian bustards fly high in the sky, while spiny-tailed lizards and monitors crawl in the desert sand.
The Sundarbans, a forest spanning across both India and Bangladesh, is home to the largest mangrove area in the world. Mangrove forests are wetland ecosystems that form along coasts, and mangrove tree roots create a unique habitat for many different animals. Saltwater crocodiles, fishing cats, sea turtles, and even river dolphins live in the Sundarbans of India. This ecosystem’s apex predator, an animal which is hunted or eaten by no other, is the Bengal tiger.
The country’s national animal, it symbolizes power and grace. Humans and tigers coexist in this region, usually without problems, but attacks do occur. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, one legendary tiger called the Man-Eater of Champawat killed more than 400 people.
Animals like tigers, rhinos, and elephants have been an important part of this region’s identity since ancient times. Artifacts from the ancient Indus Valley Civilization, for instance, often depict the same animals that live in India today, thousands of years later! India’s ecosystems have greatly changed over the centuries, making it harder for species like Bengal tigers, greater one-horned rhinos, and Indian elephants to survive where they once thrived. However, modern-day India is still one of the most awe-inspiring, biologically diverse places on the planet.