North-east biodiversity and sustainable economic development : issues and challenges

Northeast India is one of the richest in biological values as geographical ‘gateway’ for much of India’s flora and fauna being located at the confluence of Indian, Indo-Malayan and Indo-Chinese biogeographic regions meeting place of the Himalayan Mountains and peninsular India. The immense variety of the climatic, edaphic and altitudinal variations in Northeast have resulted in great range of ecological habitats, lowland-highland transition zones supporting the highest diversity of biomass or ecological communities, supporting extremely high species diversity. While this immense diversity has fascinated mankind towards its exploration, it has also thrown tough challenges in effectively highlighting by means of studies, surveys, research etc. This edited volume is an attempt to humbly capture the vastness and greatness of this land of wonders through chapters depicting varied aspects and to enrich the horizon of knowledge and unravel a roadmap to utilise the available diversity for the sustainable development.