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India encompasses some of the world's most biodiverse regions. It hosts three biodiversity hotspots: the Western Ghats, the Eastern Himalayas, and the Indo-Burmese border region. These hotspots have numerous endemic species. 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. The cretaceous fauna include reptiles, amphibians and fishes and an extant species demonstrating this phylogeographical link is the Purple Frog. India is home to several well known large mammals including the Asian Elephant, Bengal Tiger, Asiatic Lion, Leopard and Indian Rhinoceros. Some of these animals are engrained in culture, often being associated with deities. There are about 2546 species of fishes(about 11% of the world species) found in Indian waters. About 197 species of amphibians (4.4% of the world total) and more than 408 reptile species (6% of the world total) are found in India. Among these groups the highest levels of endemism are found in the amphibians. There are about 1250 species of birds from India with some variations depending on taxonomic treatments accounting for about 12% of the world species. There are about 410 species of mammals known from India which is about 8.86% of the world species. The World Conservation Monitoring Centre gives an estimate of about 15,000 species of flowering plants in India. Video Credit: Wilderness Films India Ltd