India’s biodiversity: 445 new species added in 2015

In all, 445 new species have been added to India’s list in 2015, according to the report on animal and plant discoveries of 2015. The figure includes 262 animal species and 183 plant species. The country is home to 97,514 species of animals.

Details:

• The list includes four species of reptiles, six species of amphibians, 26 species of fishes, three species of wild ginger and three of figs among others.
• Some of the notable additions to the list of animals include a rock gecko (Hemidactylus yajurvedi) found in Kanker Chhattishgarh, a new frog species (Fejervarya gomantaki) from the Western Ghats, and a shiny new species of fish (Barilius ardens), also from the Western Ghats.
• Among the plants, a new species of ginger Zingiber bipinianum has been found in the South Garo hills of Meghalaya, and a species of mushroom (Bondarzewia zonata) has been collected from north Sikkim at an altitude of 2,829 m.
• The most discoveries were made in the Eastern Himalaya region, which accounts for 19% of the total discoveries followed by the Western Ghats (18%) and Andaman and Nicobar Islands at about 15%.