Does India Need Its Own Red List Of Threatened Species?

A beautiful Gond art painting. Image credit: Vanam Art.

In India, whenever we want to know about the conservation status of a species, all we do is go to the IUCN Red List Site, enter the name of the species, and get the needed details. If we are even lazier, we search for the Wikipedia entry on the species, and there, on the right side of the page, is the column showing the species' conservation status as per the IUCN Red List. However, only less than 10% of the more than 2 million described species on Earth have been assessed for the Red List! It means that the conservation status of over 90% of the world's species still remains to be evaluated by the IUCN. Many such species might be on the brink and even go extinct before we have the chance to launch efforts to conserve them. To overcome this lacunae, we need more detailed and widespread research and assessment of species. One of the ways to bring that about could be to create country-specific Red Lists. Many countries, like the United States, Australia, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and others, have already produced such lists. So, why not have our own Indian Red List? A list specifically catering to species that call India home? That way, we can get a more comprehensive list of our species to understand their conservation status and take well-targeted actions to conserve them.

The idea of an Indian red list or threatened species list is not brand new but has been floating around for quite some time. I only learned about it recently at a conference where a wildlife biologist giving a presentation on a lesser-known species mentioned the urgent need for India to create such a list to account for many species found in India that the IUCN Red List has not assessed.

When searching the internet, I also came across this 2011 Deccan Herald report, which was about India launching a mission to create a country-specific endangered species list. Initiated by the Environment Ministry of India, the aim was to create two separate red lists for plants and animals and to release the same during the 2012 COP-11 to be held in Delhi. The species would be evaluated using a model similar to the IUCN assessment model, and the task would be performed by various organisations, but the ultimate responsibility of verification and publication would lie with the Botanical Survey of India and the Zoological Survey of India. The reason to create such lists would be to bring to the forefront all species that do not receive conservation attention but urgently need protection. It would be a comprehensive list that would guide further conservation research and education in India.

However, over a decade later, I could not find any further reports on such lists created by searching online. Even today, thousands of species of plants and animals found in India remain out of the limelight, with many possibly on the verge of extinction, but we are hardly aware of the same. Can India's own Red List help improve the status of such species? If so, how and when can the project be executed? But most importantly, the question is, "Is India ready to have its own Red List.?"