Biodiversity Hotspots & Conservation — NEET Biology
✅ Asked in NEET 2024In situ conservation– Faced with the conflict between development and conservation, many nations find it unrealistic and economically not feasible to conserve all their biological wealth. Invariably, the number of species waiting to be saved from extinction far exceeds the conservation resources available. On a global basis, this problem has been addressed by eminent conservationists. They identified for maximum protection certain 'biodiversity hotspots' regions with very high levels of species richness and high degree of endemism (that is, species confined to that region and not found anywhere else). Initially 25 biodiversity hotspots were identified but subsequently nine more have been added to the list, bringing the total number of biodiversity hotspots in the world to 34. These hotspots are also regions of accelerated habitat loss. Three of these hotspots – Western Ghats and Sri Lanka, Indo-Burma and Himalaya – cover our country's exceptionally high biodiversity regions. Although all the biodiversity hotspots put together cover less than 2 per cent of the earth's land area, the number of species they collectively
NTA tests whether students understand that biodiversity hotspots are regions with high species richness AND high endemism (species found nowhere else), not just any area with many species. The common mistake is assuming hotspots are identified based only on species richness or habitat loss alone. Remember: hotspots must have BOTH high endemism AND high richness, covering <2% land but holding a disproportionate number of species. India has 3 hotspots (Western Ghats-Sri Lanka, Indo-Burma, Himalaya). NEET frequently asks to identify hotspots, distinguish them from other conservation areas, or calculate their global representation percentage.
This paragraph was tested 3 times in NEET.
The regions with high levels of species richness, high degree of endemism, and a loss of 70% of the species and habitat are identified as: (NEET 2024)
Western Ghats have a large number of plant and animal species that are not found anywhere else. Which of the following term is used to notify such species? (NEET 2022 Phase 2)
The species confined to a particular region and not found elsewhere is termed as: (AIPMT 2015)
Through deep analysis of NEET and NTA, 88 of 90 questions from the NEET 2026 paper were matched straight from the MedicNEET Biology question bank.
88/90MedicNEET's Biology question bank is built from the same NCERT lines NTA picks repeatedly. Not random MCQs — questions crafted exactly like NTA crafts them.