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 Kerala, 8º away from the equator has a tropical humid climate with unique geography and physical features. This has created Kerala as a mega biodiversity hotspot of the world and a wonderful natural history destination for tourists and students.
Kerala is a serene diversion for a tourist looking for leisure in excess. Kerala known as “God’s own country”, is blessed with splendors of nature starting with idle beaches, backwaters, endless paddy fields, coconut groves, plantation crops, spice gardens to tropical rain forests. IISAC’s Tropical Green School offers various educational programs promoting nature study, field techniques, research and projects while making the stay of students an unforgettable experience of a life time.
TROPICAL ECOSYSTEMS & SPECIES DIVERSITY
 The natural wonder of Kerala is due to the enormous varieties of terrestrial and aquatic habitats called ecosystems. The major habitats of Kerala include tropical rainforests, shola rolling grasslands, scrub jungles, grass lands, wetlands, estuaries, mangroves, coral reefs, marine and agro ecosystems.
Physiographically, Kerala is divisible into three distinct regions called highlands occupying altitudes greater than 75 meter above MSL and reaching a peak height of 2694metres, the midlands with foothills and plains within an altitudinal range of 7.5-75 m above MSL and a narrow stretch of lowlands covering the coastal belt and falling within the altitudinal range of 0-7.5 m above MSL. The average height of the Ghats is 1500m and most of the Ghats are above 800 meters from MSL level. The Ghats length in Kerala is approximately 500 km running on the eastern side of the Kerala boarder. Kerala has a vast network of 44 rivers, two distinct rainfall seasons (south west and north east monsoons) and 32 soil sub-types creating diverse ecosystems and agro ecological zones from rainforests to wetlands. Kerala is thereby, characterized by a unique blend of geographic, geologic, edaphic and climatic gradients representing a distinct biogeographic zone in India resulting in biotic richness with high incidence of endemism.
Biodiversity represents the total number of genes, species and ecosystems in a region and the variability between them. This is so pronounced in Kerala converting this region of India into a biological heritage center and a natural history destination.
 The varied ecosystems serve as natural habitats for innumerable number of species. The indigenous flora of the state is represented by 14435 plant species including 4575 species of angiosperms, 329 pteridophytes, 226 bryophytes, 428 lichens and 886 algae. The indigenous fauna is represented by 8452 taxa of animal species. The unique and diverse avian fauna in Kerala is represented by 546 species belonging to 66 families, constituting more than 25% of Indian birds. Insect fauna is the most diverse with 6000 species, mammals 145 species, reptiles 176 species, amphibians 105 species and inland fishes 282 species. Kerala also records high endemism. The highest endemics is found among the amphibians (78%) followed by reptiles (62%), fish (53%), mammals (12%) and birds (4%).
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