When we think about biodiversity, we usually think only of animals, birds, insects and plants. We forget that fungi are also biodiversity. According to Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in the UK, fungi are ‘distinctive organisms that digest their food externally by secreting enzymes into the environment and absorbing organic matter back into their cells.’ They are one of three macroscopic kingdoms of life, together with animals (fauna) and plants (flora), and one of six total kingdoms of life.
Mycologists (people who study fungi) estimate that there are somewhere between 2.2–3.8 million species of fungi on Earth...
It won’t be long before the media declares the black rhino extinct. Due to a high price of the animal’s horn, (a whopping Rs. 43 lakhs per kilogram) it is being driven to extinction by poachers. So much so that there are only 5,000 of them left. The rhino horn is a lucrative business opportunity for the poachers who sell the horn in China, Vietnam and South Korea, where its powder is used for its supposed medicinal properties.
The Aravallis, with their vast landscape and biological diversity, have shaped the northern landscape of India in more ways than one. But despite all this, the mountain range is under severe threat from mining and large-scale real estate developments.
