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India has some of the world's most biodiverse regions. The political boundaries of India encompass a wide range of ecozones—desert, high mountains, highlands, tropical and temperate forests, swamplands, plains, grasslands, riverine areas as well as island archipelago. It hosts three biodiversity hotspots the Western Ghats, the Eastern Himalayas, and the hilly ranges that straddle the India-Myanmar border. These hotspots have numerous endemic species.[1] India's 3,166,414 square kilometres shows a notable diversity of habitats, with significant variations in rainfall, altitude, topography, and latitude. The region is also heavily influenced by summer monsoons that cause major seasonal changes in vegetation and habitat. India forms a large part of the Indomalayan biogeographical zone and many of the floral and faunal forms show Malayan affinities with only a few taxa being unique to the Indian region. The unique forms includes the snake family Uropeltidae found only in the Western Ghats and Sri Lanka. Fossil taxa from the Cretaceous show links to the Seychelles and Madagascar chain of islands.[2] The Cretaceous fauna include reptiles, amphibians and fishes and an extant species demonstrating this phylogeographical link is the Purple Frog. The separation of India and Madagascar is traditionally estimated to have taken place about 88 million years ago. However there are suggestions that the links to Madagascar and Africa were present even at the time when the Indian subcontinent met Eurasia. India has been suggested as a ship for the movement of several African taxa into Asia. These taxa include five frog families (including the Myobatrachidae), three caecilian families, a lacertid lizard and freshwater snails of the family Potamiopsidae. [3] A fossil tooth of what is believed to be of from a lemur-like primate from the Bugti Hills of central Pakistan however has led to suggestions that the lemurs may have originated in Asia. These fossils are however from the Oligocene (30 million years ago) and have led to controversy.[4][5] Lemur fossils from India in the past led to theories of a lost continent called Lemuria. This theory however was dismissed when continental drift and plate tectonics became well established. The flora and fauna of India have been studiedand recorded from early times in folk traditions and later by researchers following more formal scientific approaches (See Natural history in India). Game laws are reported from the third century BC.[6]
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