Endemic Fauna of Andaman and Nicobar Island

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The Andaman and Nicobar Archipelago situated between 645 N and 3030 N at and 90°20′ E and 9356 E long in the Bay of Bengal spread over a linear distance of over 550 km comprises of over 350 islands, islets and rock outcrops including two outlying volcanic lands Barren and Narcondam, are the summits of submarine mountain range that extends from the Eastern Himalaya along Arakan Yoma of lower Myanmar in the north to Sumatra and lesser Sundas in the south. The total land area of the islands is about 8293 sq km with a coastline of 1,962 km. Even though the Bay lands are oceanic, the northern end of the chain the North Andaman is close to the Cape Negaris of Myanmar coast, about 300 km away and the southern end, the Nicobars close to the Achin Head of Western Sumatra is about 100 km away. There are several deep and wide water channels isolated the island masses from each other these lands are adomed with vast marine forest and mangrove ecosystems Out of the total land area, about 90% is covered with monsoon forests and tropical rain forests Known to be significant global hotspots for biodiversity all the islands support a luxuriant growth of Gant Evergreen Forests, Andaman Tropical Evergreen Forests, Southern Hill top Evergreen Forests Andaman Semi-evergreen Forests, Andaman Most Deciduous Forests Littoral Forests Tidal Swamp (Mangrove) Forests and Cane and Bamboo Brakes Different Habitats of these small islands are harbouring thousands of plant and animal species. More than a quarter of the terrestrial fauna and flora are endemic, while the reminder represents a fascinating mature of taxa from Indo-China, Indo-Malaya and even sub-continental India These islands are also home to four of the last aboriginal tribes of humans Over 8.300 species of animals inhabiting terrestrial and marine environment have been recorded from the islands including large number of endemics Assessment of endemic species and their distributional pattern in the islands provide key information for determining the areas of conservation prioty.

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