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Geography & Biodiversity of Pakistan

Pakistan is situated between the latitudes 23° and 36° North and between the longitudes of 61° and 75° East. It has an area of 796,095 square kilometers (kms). India is on its eastern border, the People’s Republic of China lies to the north east. Afghanistan is situated on its northwestern boundary line while Iran shares border with Pakistan in the southwest. In north only a 24 km long Wakhan border of Afghanistan separates it from the Tajikistan. Jammu and Kashmīr is a disputed territory located between Pakistan and India. Pakistan controls a portion of the territory as Azad (Free) Kashmīr and the Federally Administered Northern Areas (FANA), while India controls a portion as the state of Jammu and Kashmīr.

Pakistan extends some 1,700 kilometers northward to the origins of the Indus among the mountains of the Himalayas, Hindu Kush and Karakoram. Many of their peaks exceed 8,000 meters including K-2, at 8,611 meters, the second highest in the world. Pakistan has a coastline of about 1,046 kilometers with 22,820 square kilometers of territorial waters and an Exclusive Economic Zone of about 196,600 square kilometers in the Arabian Sea.

The land mass of Pakistan originated in the continent of Gondwanaland which is thought to have broken off from Africa, drifted across the Indian Ocean, and joined mainland Asia some 50 million years ago. With the creation of a land-bridge between Gondwanaland and south-east Asia, Indo-Malayan life-forms are thought to have invaded the evolving sub-continent, and these now predominate in Pakistan east of the river Indus. The north and west of the country is dominated by Pala arctic forms. Some Ethiopian forms have become established in the south-western part. About 20 million years ago, the gradual drying and retreat of the Sea of Tethys created the Indus lowlands, and a violent upheaval 13 million years ago gave rise to the Himalayas. A series of Pleistocene ice-ages, the last ending just 10,000 years ago, gave rise to some unique floral and faunal associations.

Wildlife Biodiversity of Pakistan: This section describes Pakistan's wildlife, its present status, the major threats to wildlife biodiversity, and the actions that have been taken or are proposed for its protection.

For the purpose of this report, wildlife includes all vertebrates except fish, domesticated animals and human beings. Other broader definitions of wildlife include all plants and animals in wild ecosystems. Wildlife management is therefore concerned with the abundance and distribution of vertebrate species. Wildlife managers must also manage habitats, including vegetation and invertebrates which are food for, or causes of disease to wildlife.

Wildlife management is the science and art of changing the characteristics and the interaction of habitat, wild animal populations and man in order to achieve specific human goals by means of wildlife resources. Until recently, most wildlife management has focused on game animals. With the growing realization that all wild vertebrates possess important values, the scope of wildlife management has been broadened to include predators, songbirds, furbearers and vertebrate pests.

Flora/Fauna	Number of Species
Flora/Fauna	In World	In Pakistan	Endemic
Plants	25,000 to 75,000 species	6,000 species 5,000 wild)	372 species
Mammals	18 orders	10 orders	Indus Dolphin.
			Chiltan Markhor
			Pakistan Sand Cat
			Suleiman Markhor
			Punjab Urial
			Baluchistan Bear
	4,100 species	188 species of which: 63 rodents
		39 carnivores
		38 bats
		25 hoofed animals
		11 insectivores
		9 aquatic animals, 3 primates, 1 pholidota
Birds	8,600 species	666 migratory & resident species
Reptiles	6,500 species	174 species of which : 88 lizards
		72 snakes
		10 turtles
		(2 marine, 8 freshwater) 2 tortoises
		1 crocodile
		1 Gavial
Amphibians		16 species
Fishes	2,600 species	525 species of which: 400 marine fish
		125 freshwater species
Insects/ Invertebrates	750,000 species	20,000 species 700 marine