UPSC Civil Services 2011 Prelims General Studies Paper I

To qualify as a hotspot, a region must meet two strict criteria: it must contain at least 1,500 species of vascular plants (> 0.5 percent of the world’s total) as endemics, and it has to have lost at least 70 percent of its original habitat. So we choose Species richness as well as Endemism. Along with this Threat perception is necessary to take , because it makes the base of this concept. Adaptation of flora is an arbitrary option, Ethno-botanical importance does nothing with the Biodiversity Hotspot selection criteria, vegetation Density is also discarded.