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The Kashmir Valley has been fabled down the ages for its natural beauty.
It has best been described as an emerald set in pearls, with the emerald
representing the lush, fertile Kashmir Valley and pearls for the lofty
snow-clad Himalayan peaks that encircle it.
Kashmir's enormous
habitat diversity supports an equally rich and unique biodiversity,
making Kashmir a biological paradise.
Unfortunately it's environment is being
seriously degraded by the combined onslaught of violence, pollution,
global warming and habitat destruction due to human encroachment,
unplanned tourism and deforestation. |
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The State of Jammu & Kashmir is home to
75 mammal species, belonging
to 54 genera, 21 families and 8 orders. Carnivores represent 32% of the
total mammalian fauna in the state. Of the 19 species of the ungulates
reported from the state, 13 have been listed as globally threatened.
Birds form the
largest group followed by mammals,
reptiles, fishes
and amphibians. The
avian diversity of
the state varies seasonally and available data suggests the existence of
as many as 358 species of
birds belonging to
179 genera, 51 families
under 16 orders. The state is home to 14 species of
amphibians belonging
to 6 genera, 5 families and 1 order, and 68 species of
reptiles
belonging to 43 genera, 12 families and 2 orders.
The available data suggests that 44 species of
fishes belonging to 14 genera under 5 families occur in the state.
The available data also reveals that as many as 225 species of
insects, besides several sub-species,
belonging to 136 genera, 35 families and 4 orders occur in the state. |
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"We have not inherited the world from our
parents, merely borrowed it from our children"
- Native American wisdom |
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In a recent newspaper article, a learned professor
of the natural sciences pointed out the very real
danger that we may
fail to pass on our
biological heritage to our own children and grand-children as wholesome and intact as we have received it from our parents and grand-parents.
My own efforts to create a project of this magnitude were kick-started by
the realisation that my two sons could immediately identify an alien
species like a Hornbill or Flamingo from a photograph in a book but
could not identify the liquid-voiced and brilliantly-colored Golden
Orioles
[Posh-Nool ]
nesting in our garden.
From its modest beginnings,
our
first internet project - the
Birds of Kashmir
website - went on to receive international recognition and is linked to several of
the leading avian databases on the internet. The natural follow-up
effort is the Wildlife of Kashmir website attempting to document the wildlife of
Kashmir in the same format. |
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More information is
available on the About this Website page. |
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