Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Development: India’s Heritage Contribution

Abstract

Biodiversity, the variety of life on earth, is vital to social and economic development, and is indeed fundamental to our survival. Over the years, retrospective wisdom and the development experiences have guided us in favor of the commonsensical understanding that protecting the variety of life forms and their infinitely complex interactions; form the very basis for long-lasting and inclusive development. In other words, environment, or more specifically biodiversity and its invaluable and often irreplaceable ecosystem services, from the air we breathe to the water we drink, are the very foundation on which viable long –term development rests