National Red List for Flora and Fauna Assessment
Contents
National Red List for Flora and Fauna Assessment
India has launched a groundbreaking National Red List Assessment initiative (2025-2030), unveiled at the IUCN World Conservation Congress 2025 in Abu Dhabi on October 9, 2025. This marks India’s first nationally coordinated effort to assess the extinction risk of its threatened species using internationally recognized scientific standards.
Overview and Objectives
The National Red List Assessment aims to systematically identify and protect India’s most vulnerable species through a comprehensive, science-based approach aligned with global environmental commitments. The initiative will evaluate the extinction risk of approximately 11,000 species—comprising 7,000 flora and 4,000 fauna—establishing a foundation for evidence-based conservation planning and informed policy development by 2030.
The initiative fulfills India’s commitments under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF), particularly Target 4, which calls for halting species extinction and protecting genetic diversity.
India’s Biodiversity Significance
India occupies only 2.4% of the world’s land area but harbors nearly 8% of global flora and 7.5% of global fauna, making it one of the world’s 17 megadiverse countries. The country is home to four of the 36 recognized global biodiversity hotspots: the Himalayas, Western Ghats, Indo-Burma region, and Sundaland. India exhibits remarkable endemism, with 28% of plants and 30% of animals being endemic, including 79% of amphibians and 54.9% of reptiles found nowhere else in the wild.
Current Assessment Status: Data Gap
Despite this biodiversity richness, assessment efforts remain severely limited. Of the 55,726 recorded plant species, only 6.33% have been assessed for the global IUCN Red List, while merely 7.2% of the 1,04,561 documented animal species have been evaluated. Of the limited fauna that has been assessed, 13.4% are classified as threatened, while alarmingly, 13.8% fall into the data-deficient category, meaning their conservation status remains unknown.
IUCN Red List Categories
The assessment follows the globally accepted IUCN classification system, which categorizes species into nine categories based on extinction risk:
| Category | Definition |
|---|---|
| Extinct (EX) | No known individuals remaining |
| Extinct in the Wild (EW) | Known only in captivity or outside historic range |
| Critically Endangered (CR) | Extremely high risk of extinction in wild |
| Endangered (EN) | Very high risk of extinction in wild |
| Vulnerable (VU) | High risk of extinction in wild |
| Near Threatened (NT) | Close to qualifying for threatened category |
| Least Concern (LC) | Does not qualify for threatened categories |
| Data Deficient (DD) | Inadequate information available |
| Not Evaluated (NE) | Not yet assessed |
Current Threatened Species Status in India
India currently has over 70 critically endangered animal species and 60+ critically endangered plant species according to global IUCN assessments. Notable critically endangered fauna includes the Great Indian Bustard, Bengal Florican, Siberian Crane, White-backed Vulture, Indian Vulture, Pygmy Hog, and various species of marine turtles. Among birds specifically, 182 Indian bird species are listed in IUCN threatened categories.
Institutional Framework and Implementation
The initiative is spearheaded by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), with Botanical Survey of India (BSI) and Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) serving as nodal agencies. Implementation involves collaboration with IUCN-India, the Centre for Species Survival (CSS): India – Wildlife Trust of India, and the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC).
The initiative operates under total funding of ₹95 crore, comprising ₹80 crore from BSI and ZSI budgets with additional resources from partner agencies.
Methodology: IUCN Species Conservation Cycle
The assessment follows the IUCN Species Conservation Cycle with five phases:
Assess – Systematic evaluation of extinction risk using quantitative criteria
Plan – Development of conservation strategies
Act – Implementation of conservation actions
Network – Collaboration among stakeholders
Communicate – Public dissemination of findings
Key Deliverables and Timeline
The initiative will produce National Red Data Books for both flora and fauna by 2030, serving as authoritative reference documents for conservation planning. These will include:
Peer-reviewed species assessments with global visibility
Digital public database for easy access to species data and risk analysis
User-friendly online platform for conservation practitioners and policymakers
Integration of Traditional Knowledge
The initiative emphasizes the important role of documenting and integrating traditional knowledge in biodiversity conservation, recognizing that indigenous communities possess valuable understanding of species and ecosystems.
Distinctive Features of India’s Approach
While other Asian nations such as Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and China have conducted similar multi-taxa assessments, India’s National Red List Assessment distinguishes itself as one of the most comprehensive and collaborative national efforts, bringing together the country’s leading taxonomists, conservation biologists, and subject experts under a unified, nationally coordinated framework.
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