Issue 5 journal

I n terms of biological diversity, the Himalayan region is one of the world’s richest ecosystems (Pei and Sharma 1998) and has been identified as a “biodiversity hotspot.” Although Nepal constitutes only about 0.09% of the world’s land area, it harbors a remarkable number of faunal species: 4.5% of all mammals, 9.5% of birds, 1.2% of amphibians, 2.03% of reptiles and 6.8% of butterflies and moths. China, which is 65 times greater in area than Nepal, is home to only 12.5% of the world’s mammals, 6.3% of the birds, 9.1% of the amphibians and 18.8% of the reptiles. Similarly, India is 16 times greater than Nepal, but can claim only 8.6% of the mammals in the world, 13.3% of the birds, 4.3% of the amphibians and 7.2% of the reptiles (Pei 1996). Unlike many other invertebrates, mollusks throughout most of the world are taxonomically a relatively well-known group. There are databases for Eastern Himalayan mollusks (covering Assam, Darjeeling, Arunachal, Meghalaya, and Burma) and also for Western Himalaya species (including those of Jammu, Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Gahrwal). No such database exists for mollusks of the Nepal Himalaya. Inadequate data and information management is considered a significant threat to Nepal’s biodiversity conservation (MFSC 2002). Sporadic reports on the phylum from Nepal Himalaya are scattered in articles and dissertations throughout the world and not readily accessible to researchers; they have yet to be included in Nepal’s biodiversity databases. Nonetheless, the existing databases reveal that the Himalayan region as a whole is rich in endemic mollusks: 94.6% of the terrestrial species and 47.8% of the freshwater species found in the eastern and central Himalayas are found only in the regions (Dey and Mitra 2000). Much taxonomic work remains to be done, particularly in Nepal, where we may expect to discover numerous endemic species of both terrestrial and freshwater mollusks, as well as new species, in the many unexplored and isolated microhabitats within the severely compressed Mollusks of the world are, in general, more thoroughly documented than other invertebrates. This is the case for the Himalayas as well – except in Nepal. A scant 139 species have been reported from Nepal, but the new sightings reported every year and the high percentage of endemism (94.6 for terrestrial and 47.8 for aquatic mollusks) both suggest that a focused and accelerated study of these creatures is warranted. However, inauspicious externalities indicate that, for the foreseeable future, progress is unlikely to exceed the proverbial snail’s pace.