Kolkata, June 30 -- The Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) has added 683 new entries to the country's faunal database, including 459 newly-discovered species and 224 species newly-recorded from India.
The findings were published in Animal Discoveries-2024, unveiled on Monday to mark ZSI Day. With these additions, India's total documented faunal diversity now stands at 1,05,244 species as of January 1, 2025, accounting for 6.26 per cent of the world's known faunal species.
Kerala topped the list with the highest number of new records - 101 (80 new species and 21 new records), followed by Karnataka with 82 (68; 14), Arunachal Pradesh with 72 (42; 30), Tamil Nadu with 63 (50; 13), and Bengal with 56 (25; 31). The lowest number of new species were reported from Chandigarh, Delhi, Haryana
and Telangana.
ZSI director, Dhriti Banerjee praised the efforts of the institute's scientists, who conducted 156 intensive field surveys across more than 31,000 sq km, often in challenging terrains. Union Environment minister Bhupender Yadav, who presided over the ZSI Day celebrations as chief guest, also formally inaugurated the Animal Taxonomy Summit-2025, scheduled to be held from July 1 to 3. On the occasion, ZSI signed two
significant MoUs.
One with the Counter Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School, under the Army Training Command of the Ministry of Defence and the second was signed with the
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to jointly develop a National Red Listing of Indian flora and fauna.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.