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Question
Of the four major causes for the loss of biodiversity (Alien species invasion, habitat loss and fragmentation, over-exploitation and co-extinctions which according to you is the major cause for the loss of biodiversity? Give reasons in support.
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Solution
Habitat loss and fragmentation is the most important cause driving animals and plants to extinction. The most dramatic examples of habitat loss come from tropical rainforests. Once covering more than 14 per cent of the earth’s land surface, these rainforests now cover no more than 6 per cent. They are being destroyed fast. By the time you finish reading this chapter, 1000 more hectares of rainforest would have been lost. The Amazon rain forest (it is so huge that it is called the ‘lungs of the planet’) harbouring probably millions of species is being cut and cleared for cultivating soyabeans or for conversion to grasslands for raising beef cattle.
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