Why in the News?

India unveiled its National Red List Roadmap and Vision 2025–2030 at the IUCN World Conservation Congress 2025 in Abu Dhabi.

Global Context:

IUCN Red List: Globally, 1,69,420 species have been assessed; about 28% are classified as threatened.
Biodiversity Decline: The Living Planet Report 2024 documented a 73% decline in vertebrate populations (1970–2020), with freshwater species down by 85%.
Extinction Rate: Current extinction rates are 1,000–10,000 times higher than natural background levels due to human pressures such as habitat loss, overexploitation, and climate change.
Global Need: Strengthening regional red lists like India’s provides granular, science-based data to guide conservation financing and global biodiversity monitoring.

Purpose: Marks India’s first coordinated national effort to scientifically assess the extinction risk of ~11,000 species of plants and animals by 2030 using IUCN Red List methodology, the global benchmark for species assessment.
Aim: To establish a science-based, nationally coordinated red-listing system that strengthens biodiversity planning, conservation policy, and threat mitigation.
Strategic Alignment: Supports India’s commitments under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KM-GBF), reaffirming India’s leadership in global biodiversity governance.
Outcome Goal: To publish National Red Data Books on flora and fauna by 2030, serving as authoritative reference guides for ecological protection and management.

Scientific Alignment: Adopts IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria, ensuring uniformity and comparability with international conservation assessments.
Scope and Coverage: Envisions evaluation of 11,000 terrestrial and marine species, encompassing major ecological regions across India.
Core Outputs:
- Peer-reviewed species assessments with global visibility.
- Publication of National Red Data Books and creation of a digital public database for species data and risk analysis.
Institutional Framework:
- Implemented jointly by the Botanical Survey of India (BSI) and Zoological Survey of India (ZSI).
- Partner agencies include IUCN India, Centre for Species Survival: India – Wildlife Trust of India (CSS: India–WTI), and the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC).
Funding and Resources: Total outlay of ₹95 crore, comprising ₹80 crore from BSI and ZSI budgets and ₹15 crore mobilised for training and international collaboration.
Capacity Building: Creation of a cadre of 300 trained species assessors and development of national training modules on biodiversity evaluation.
Policy Integration: The data generated will inform India’s National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, legislative updates, and species recovery prioritisation through 2030.

India’s Biodiversity Profile: Recognised as one of the 17 megadiverse nations, India hosts four biodiversity hotspots, the Himalayas, Western Ghats, Indo-Burma, and Sundaland (Nicobar Islands).
Ecological Richness: Despite covering only 2.4% of global land area, India shelters 8% of global flora and 7.5% of fauna, with 28% of plants and 30% of animals being endemic.

[UPSC 2011] The “Red Data Books’’ published by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) contain lists of:

(a) Endemic plant and animal species present in the biodiversity hotspots.

(b) Threatened plant and animal species. *

(d) None of the above.