Land snails (Mollusca: Gastropoda) of India: Status, threats and conservation strategies.

Land snails form an important component in the forest ecosystem. In terms of number of species, the phylum Mollusca, to which land snails belong, is the largest phylum after Arthropoda.  Mollusca provide unique ecosystem services including recycling of nutrients and they provide a prey base for small mammals, birds, snakes and other reptiles.  However, land snails have the largest number of documented extinctions, compared to any other taxa.  Till date 1,129 species of land snails are recorded from Indian territory.  But only basic information is known about their taxonomy and little is known of their population biology, ecology and their conservation status.  In this paper, we briefly review status, threats and conservation strategies of land snails of India.