Zoological Survey of India releases fauna checklist of over 1 lakh species
Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav said India is the first country to prepare such a checklist
The Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) has released a checklist of India’s fauna, covering 104,561 species, on Sunday. Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav said India is the first country to prepare such a checklist.
Yadav launched the Fauna of India Checklist Portal on the occasion of 109th Foundation Day of Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) in Kolkata.
“The Fauna of India Checklist Portal is the first comprehensive document on the faunal species reported from India. The faunal checklist will be an invaluable reference for taxonomists, researchers, academicians, conservation managers, and policymakers. It comprises 121 checklists of all known taxa covering 36 phyla. Endemic, threatened, and scheduled species have also been included in the list,” he added.
Out of 455 mammalian species recorded from India, Meghalaya (163 species), West Bengal (161 species), Arunachal Pradesh (142 species), Tamil Nadu (139 species), Assam (138 species), Sikkim (137 species) and Kerala (134 species) are having the maximum number of species; the highest mammalian diversity of the Union Territories are Andaman & Nicobar Islands (68 species), Ladakh (59 species) and Delhi (38 species). Out of 52 endemic mammal species in India, Tamil Nadu (23 species), Karnataka (19 species) and Kerala (19 species) have high numbers of endemic species in the country, according to the checklist.
High endemism is reported from the Western Ghats hill streams of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, and Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Three genera such as Anathana, Latidens and Nilgiritragus are monotypic and found only in India.
Salim Ali’s fruit bat (Latidens salimalii) is a rare megabat species in the monotypic genus Latidens. The Madras Treeshrew is from the Anathana genus.
Among the 1,358 bird species present in India, there are 79 that are endemic, meaning they are found nowhere else in the world. The Western Ghats Bio-geographic zone has the highest number of these species at 28, with the Andaman and Nicobar Islands being the next most important area for endemism.