In 2022, India added 664 animal species to its faunal database

In 2022, India added 664 animal species to its faunal database: Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupendra Yadav released the details of new discoveries and new records in Kolkata.

India added 664 animal species to its faunal database, which includes 467 new animal species and 197 new records. India has also added 339 new plant species which includes 186 taxa that are new to science and 156 taxa as new distributional records from the country in the year 2022. The discoveries details of animal species have been compiled by the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) in the publication titled ‘Animal Discoveries – New Species and New Records 2023’.

Floral discoveries are in ‘Plant Discoveries 2022’ published by the Botanical Survey of India (BSI). Out of the total discovered species, there are three new species and one new record of mammals, two new records of birds, 30 new species and two new records of reptiles, six new species and one new record of amphibia and 28 new species and eight new records of fishes.

Out of total 664 animal species, 583 species are invertebrates while 81 species are vertebrates. The maximum number of new discoveries have been recorded from Kerala with 14.6% of new species. Tamil Nadu (12.6%) and West Bengal (7.6%) came second and third, respectively. In 2022, the highest number of new discoveries has been recorded in the last 10 years.