Why does India have a rich heritage of flora and fauna?

(i) India has a large latitudinal and longitudinal extent. The larger the area, the more is the variety.
(ii) It has a great variety in its relief features. It has mountains, plateaus, valleys, plains, deserts, coastal areas, etc. They all have different types of flora and fauna.
(iii) There is variation in annual range of temperature as well as annual rainfall.
(iv) climate ranges from equable to hot and wet, hot and dry, cold and dry, etc. Each climatic region has its own vegetation.
(v) There are also various types of soils found in India. It has variety of soils like alluvial, black, laterite, arid, red and yellow, and mountain soils, etc. As a result, we find different types of flora as well as fauna.