The preservation of species in its natural habitat is called in-situ conservation ex-situ conservation refers to the conservation of species in suitable locations outside the natural habitat.
In-situ conservation:
In-situ conservation is being done by declaring area as protected area. In India following types of natural habitats are being maintained
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National parks
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Wildlife sanctuaries
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Biosphere reserves
1. National Parks:
A national park is an area which is strictly reserved for the betterment of the wildlife and where activities like fore story grazing on cultivation are permitted. In these parks, even private ownership rights are not allowed.
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There were about 66 national parks (in 1988) in India spread over an area of 33, 988, 14 square kilometers or nearly 1 per cent of the country is geographical area. These were about 75 is number in 1993.
2. Sanctuaries:
A sanctuary is a protected area which is reserved for the conservation of only animals and human activities like harvesting of timber, collecting minor forest products and private ownership rights are allowed as long as they do not interfere with well-being of animals. There are about 392 (As on October 1992) and 421 (As in 1993) Sanctuaries in India (368 sanctuaries in 1988) which cover about 107,310 square kilometer or 3.2 percent of country’s geographical area.
3. Biosphere Reserves:
Under MAB (Man and Biosphere) Programme UNESCO has established a number of biosphere reserves in the world. The concept of biosphere reserves was launched by MAB in 1975 for dealing with the conservation of ecosystems and the genetic resources contained therein. Under MAB programme UNESCO has studied the impact of human interference and pollution on biotic and a biotic environments and conservation strategies for the present as well as future.
Ex-situ conservation strategies:
Such strategies include establishment of botanical gardens, zoos, conservation strands and gene, pollen seed, seedling, tissue culture and DNA banks.
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Seed gene bank: This is easiest way to store the germ plasma of plants at low temperature.
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Field gene bank: Genetic variability also be preserved by field gene bank under normal growing conditions.
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Cryopreservation: This type of conservation is done at very low temperature i.e. 196°C is quid nitrogen.
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Botanical gardens: In more than 1500 botanical gardens and arboreta (botanical garden where particular shrubs and trees are grown) are in the world. In such gorgeous move them 80,000 species are found. Many botanical gardens have the facilities of seed banks, tissue culture and other latest technologies.
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Zoos: In world there are about 800 zoos. Such zoos have about 3000 species of vertebrates. Some zoos have undertaken captive breeding programmes.