Management of genetic resources of perennial horticultural crops: a review.

Abstract

India has a rich and varied heritage of biodiversity, encornpassing a wide spectrum of habitats from tropical rain forests to alpine vegetatiolt artd frorn temperate forests to coastal wetlands. Out of 18 biodiversity hot spots identified in ttre world, fbur hotspots, i.e. The Western Ghats, Eastern Hirnalaya, Western Himalaya, and Nicobar islands are in Inclia. Besides, India has 26 recognizecl endemic centres which are home to one-third of all the flowering plants identified and described so far. There ale 8.7 million species of the world's biota. Ofl them, only 1,7 nrillion have been described to date, and their distribution is trighly uneven. AboutT%o of the world's total land area is home to half of lhe world's species, with the tropics alone, accounting for 5 million. India contributes significantly to the biodiversity of the world, accounting 7.31 o/o of the global plant diversity lrom 2.4yo of the world's area.