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India has around 14,500 km of inland navigable waterways. [63] There are twelve rivers which are classified as major rivers, with the total catchment area exceeding 2,528,000 km 2 (976,000 sq mi). [28] All major rivers of India originate from one of the three main watersheds: [28] The Himalaya and the Karakoram ranges
The Bengal tiger.India has the highest number of cat species in the world. [3]India has some of the world's most biodiverse ecozones—desert, high mountains, highlands, tropical and temperate forests, swamplands, plains, grasslands, areas surrounding rivers and an island archipelago.
There are few inland rivers, which do not drain into sea. [2] [3] Most of the rivers in India originate from the four major watersheds in India. The Himalayan watershed is the source of majority of the major river systems in India including the three longest rivers–the Ganges, the Brahmaputra and the Indus. [3] [4] These three river systems ...
The Ganges River is the largest river in India. Its extreme pollution affects approximately 600 million people living near its banks. The river water begins to show signs of pollution as it enters the plains, with commercial exploitation increasing in proportion to population growth. The towns of Gangotri and Uttarkashi exemplify this trend.
Water scarcity also threatens the lives of wild animals across India. Wild animals are forced to infiltrate villages and cities in India as they attempt to find potable water. In 2016, the city of Mettur and Kolathur experienced an acute water shortage caused by a drought, which caused water bodies in nearby forests to dry out.
India's climate has become progressively drier since the late Miocene, reducing forest cover in northern India in favour of grassland. [23] There are about 29,015 species of plants including 17,926 species of flowering plants. This is about 9.1% of the total plant species identified worldwide and 6,842 species are endemic to India.
Possessing a tremendous diversity of climate and physical conditions, India has a great variety of fauna, numbering 89,451 species. The mammals include the Indian elephant, the gaur or erroneously the Indian bison - the largest of existing bovines, the great Indian rhinoceros, and the wild water buffalo.
The major sources of pollution in India include the rapid burning of fuelwood and biomass such as dried waste from livestock as the primary source of energy, lack of organised garbage and waste removal services, lack of sewage treatment operations, lack of flood control and monsoon water drainage system, diversion of consumer waste into rivers ...