India has a rich and varied heritage of biodiversity, encompassing a wide variety of habitats from tropical rainforests to alpine vegetation and temperate forests to coastal wetlands. Of the twenty-four hot spots identified globally, India holds two - The Western Ghats and Eastern Himalayas, which feature among the top eight most important hotspots. In addition, India is one of the twelve-mega biodiversity countries of the world and one of four in Asia. India has more than 89,000 species of Fauna, which is 7.2% of the known Global Faunal diversity.
Of the 4629 Mammal species known Globally, India has 397 species, about 9% of the world mammalian fauna. This checklist includes up to date synonymy of each species, their geographical distribution in India, and their conservation and trade status. Of the 397 Indian species 46 are endemic and 77 are threatened.