The Botanical Survey of India (BSI) says that India is home to 11.5% of all flora in the world. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, since 1750, more than double the numbers of plants have disappeared from the wild than birds, mammals and amphibians combined.
Eighteen species of plants (4 non-flowering and 14 flowering) are extinct. Notable among them – Lastreopsis wattii, a fern in Manipur discovered in 1882, three species from the genus Ophiorrhiza discovered from peninsular India, and Corypha taliera Roxb, a palm species discovered in the Bengal region.
The cheetah (Acionyx jubatus) and the Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensisi) are considered extinct in India. The pink-headed duck (Rhodonessa caryophyllaceai) is feared extinct since 1950 and the Himalayan quail (Ophrysia supercililios) was last reported in 1876. The Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) says that the four animals can be found in other parts of the world. India has about 6.49% of all the fauna species in the world.
“Competition, predation, natural selection, and human induced factors like hunting, habitat degradation” are some of the reasons that have led to these extinctions.
Picture Credit : Google