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 Kerala is internationally recognized as a hotspot of biodiversity, its efforts in sustainable development, gender equality initiatives and achievements in developmental studies. The state of Kerala is divisible into three major regions namely highlands, midlands and lowlands. The mountainous range known as Western Ghats, occupying altitudes between 75 to 2694 m above MSL convert half of the land of Kerala into highlands. This region supports more than 6% of the world’s biodiversity in its forests. The midlands with foothills and plains with an altitudinal range of 7.5 m to 74 m above MSL are noted for its agro biodiversity and cover 40% of the land area. The narrow stretches of lowlands covering the coastal belt between 0-7.5 m above MSL occupy almost 10% of Kerala. This region is noted for rice paddy cultivation, coconut groves and fisheries.
.jpg) The altitudinal diversity of Kerala ranging 0- 2694m above the sea level, two distinct monsoon seasons providing an average rainfall of 3100 mm per annum., 44 perennial rivers, 590 km long coastline are responsible for the diverse ecosystems of Kerala. The state’s rich ecosystems include tropical evergreen forests, semi evergreen forests, moist deciduous forests, dry deciduous forests, shola forests, grass lands, mangroves, swamps and wetlands. A major part of Nilgiri Biosphere is constituted by the forests in Kerala. They hold three hotspots of endemic centers namely Agasthyamalai, Anamalai and Silent Valley. The state has six national park, 15 wildlife sanctuaries, including three bird sanctuaries and a tiger reserve. Kerala has three lake systems designated as Ramsar sites. These lakes are Vembanad, Ashtamudi and Shasthamkotta.
The diverse ecosystems support unique assemblage of biological communities with remarkable array of species and genetic diversity. Kerala’s diverse geographical regions support as many as 14435 plant species including more than 4500 species of flowering plants and at least 1000 orchid varieties, of which 1500 taxa are endemic in nature. The number of animal species in Kerala is 8452 and it includes 145 species of mammals, 546 species of birds, 176 species of reptiles, 282 species of freshwater fishes and 6000 species of insects. Many animal species show high degree of endemism.
The incredible biodiversity and unique ecosystems of Kerala are providing extraordinary opportunities to explore both natural and altered ecosystems. Tropical Green School, another educational wing of Semester India program of IISAC, USA (www.semesterinindia.org ) has developed both short term and semester long programs in tropical biology, biodiversity and environmental science for US students and professors in association with Indian faculty.
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