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The Karnataka Biodiversity Board has decided to declare four more areas in the State as biodiversity heritage sites.

Highlights

Antaragange Betta in Kolar; Aadi Narayana Swamy Betta in Chickballapur; Mahima Ranga Betta in Nelamangala, Bengaluru; and the Urumbi area on the Kumaradhara river basin in Dakshina Kannada were declared as biodiversity heritage sites.

An area as biodiversity heritage site will help protect the rich and unique ecosystem in a particular area from further destruction.

Why were new sites chosen?

47 plant species endemic to the Western Ghats would face the threat of submersion. Of them, three species were in the “critically endangered” list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and three other species were in the “endangered” list.

The report said that the project should be shelved, considering the threat to the aquatic biodiversity in the Kumaradhara. The river had 56 different fish species, of which 23 were endemic, 11 vulnerable, and eight endangered as per the IUCN red list of threatened species.

What is a Biodiversity Heritage Site?

Biodiversity Heritage Sites (BHS) are well defined areas that are unique, ecologically fragile ecosystems – terrestrial, coastal and inland waters and, marine having rich biodiversity comprising of any one or more of the following components:

• Richness of wild as well as domesticated species or intra-specific categories.
• High endemism.
• Presence of rare and threatened species, keystone species, species of evolutionary significance.
• Wild ancestors of domestic/cultivated species or their varieties.
• Past pre-eminence of biological components represented by fossil beds and having significant cultural, ethical or aesthetic values and are important for the maintenance of cultural diversity, with or without a long history of human association with them.

Source: The Hindu