Facts about mountains

• Occupying about 20% of the world's land area, mountains are home to about 10% of its population.
• Mountains supply more than half of the fresh water requirements of the world. Hence they are named as "Water Towers of the World"
• Mountains harbour some of the world's richest biological diversity as well as some of the world's poorest people.
• Of the 20 plant species that supply 80% of the world's food, six originated inmountains. Among them the potato first appeared in the Peruvian Andes, corn in the Sierra of Mexico and sorghum in the high Ethiopian plateaus.
• Eighty per sent of the world's population relies on traditional medicines, yet one in every eight species of plants, many originating in mountain biomes, faces extinction.
• In some mountian regions, agricultural diversity and cultural diversity go hand in hand. in the Hindukush Himalaya Mountains, for example each region's many ethnic groups grow their own varieties of vegetables and spices.
• The world's greatest land mountain range is the Himalayas, which contains 96 of the world's 109 peaks of over 7315 m(24,000 ft).
• In India, the two mega biodiversity hotspots - the Western Ghats and Eastern Himalayas are mountainous regions.
• The 'Quenal' is the world's highest growing tree, found at an altitude of nearly 5,000 meters in the Peruvian Andes.
• While forests in the mountains of developing nations are generally decreasing in area, those in many industrial nations are expanding.
• Mountain tourism acconts for about 15 to 20 persent of the global tourist industry.this activities like skeing and mountneering.
• More than half of humanity depends on mountains for water to drink, to grow food, to produce electricty and to generate industry, as well as for transportation.
• In humid parts of the world mountains provide 30 to 60 persent of the freshwater downstream.
• All the major rivers of world depend on mountains for water.