Biodiversity and Conservation Test - 75

Situated near the road connecting Patiala and Devigarh, 'Bir Bhunerheri Wildlife Sanctuary' is quite famous as a popular tourist spot in Patiala. Since, it is located close to Patiala city, many people who come to the city also visit the sanctuary. The sanctuary covers an overall area of more than 660 hectares approximately. 

Genetic diversity is the total number of species with different genetic characteristics. These are the source of biodiversity and variation.
Tropical South America has the highest plant diversity of any region today, but this richness is usually characterized as a geologically recent development (Neogene or Pleistocene). From caldera-lake beds exposed at Laguna del Hunco in Patagonia, Argentina, paleolatitude approximately 47 degrees, we report 102 leaf species. So, the correct answer is option D.

Ex situ conservation is the conservation and maintenance of samples of living organisms outside their natural habitat, in the form of whole plants, seed, pollen, vegetative propagules, tissue or cell cultures.
In vitro techniques have been increasingly used for plants in the last 40-50 years. Conservation of genebank accessions is only one of several uses for the techniques. The basic procedure consists of conserving parts of plants in flasks or tubes in artificial media, under controlled environments, normally in sterile conditions. A prerequisite of successful in vitro conservation is that the plants or plant parts can be regenerated into complete plants for growth and use in any of the ways that genetic resources are used.
Cryopreservation or cryoconservation is a process, where cells, whole tissues, or any other substances susceptible to damage caused by chemical reactivity or time are preserved by cooling to sub-zero temperatures.
All these methods could be used to conserve vegetatively propagating crops.

The Sundarbans are a part of the world's largest delta formed by the rivers Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna. Sundarban is a vast area covering 4262 square kms in India alone, with a larger portion in Bangladesh 2585 sq. kms of the Indian Sundarban forms the largest Tiger Reserve and National Park in India. 

'Biodiversity Act' of India was passed by the parliament in the year 2002. Its main aim is to preserve the biological diversity in India. It emphasizes on the mechanism for sharing equal benefits that are arising due to the use of traditional biological resources and knowledge.

Genetic erosion is a process, whereby an already limited gene pool of an endangered species of plant or animal diminishes even more when individuals from the surviving population die off without getting a chance to meet and breed with others in their endangered low population. The term is sometimes used in a narrow sense, such as when describing the loss of particular alleles or genes, as well as being used more broadly, as when referring to the loss of varieties or even whole species.
Genetic erosion occurs because each individual organism has many unique genes which get lost when it dies without getting a chance to breed. Low genetic diversity in a population of wild animals and plants leads to a further diminishing gene pool inbreeding and a weakening immune system can then "fast track" that species towards eventual extinction.

Wildlife is an asset for our environment. It needs to be protected to maintain an optimum biodiversity. Some of the reasons for extinction of wild life are:

• Alpha diversity : species diversity within a community or habitat, comprises two components, i.e., species richness and evenness. 
• Beta diversity : is the inter community diversity expressing the rate of species turnover per unit change in habitat. 
• Gamma diversity : is the overall diversity at landscape level includes both alpha and beta diversities. 

Protected areas or conservation areas are locations, which receive protection, because of their recognized natural, ecological and/or cultural values. There are over 161,000 protected areas in the world (as of October 2010) with more added daily, representing between 15 to 20 percent of the world's land surface area.