Role of Biodiversity – Opportunities, Threats, and Strategic Interventions for a Resilient Indian City

Abstract

Cities are at the core of current environmental problems due to their ever-increasing demand for land surfaces and their impact on natural resources. Urban expansion compromises the functioning capacity of the ecosystems and creates complex effects on local and regional biodiversity. As cities grow, vital habitats are altered, destroyed, or fragmented into patches not big enough to support complex ecological communities, which is presently the most prominent factor contributing to the current global extinction and one of the pressing environmental issues. Hence, biodiversity conservation is integral to sustainable development and a significant concern of this millennium. Accurate assessment of urban biodiversity and implementation of strategies to arrest its loss at the local level is one of the most discussed topics in contemporary environmental research and international policies. The present study attempts to understand and analyse the urban biodiversity of Kolkata - a high-density megacity in eastern India with multiple environmental issues. It addresses the global agenda of biodiversity loss through a detailed assessment of the biodiversity status in the Indian city of Kolkata, followed by formulating relevant biodiversity strategies.