ZSI releases 'Animal Discoveries 19'
Kolkata: 368 new species pertaining to 32 groups of animals have been documented from India in the year 2019. The details of these new species was made public on Friday with Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) releasing "Animal Discoveries 2019: New Species and New Records".
"Among the 368 new species, 294 are invertebrates and 74 are amphibians. The majority of the amphibians are fishes with 38 new species and 5 new records. 116 species have been recorded for the first time from India," said Kailash Chandra, Director ZSI.
The animal discoveries comprise of 360 total species out of which 4 are sub-species and 4 are fossil species. Among the 294 invertebrates, insects are dominating with 202 new species.
The highest number of new species 68 have been recorded from Kerala followed by Arunachal Pradesh from where 66 new species have been recorded. Among the 10 biographic zones in the country the maximum number 155 have been found in the Western Ghats. Himalayan region has recorded 56 species out of which 17 are new records.
The biodiversity hotspots of India once again proved as the neverending treasure house for species richness where several species have been newly described.
The current discoveries have updated the Indian faunal diversity to the extent of 1,02,161 species equivalent to 6.52 per cent of the global share.
Two publications of ZSI, "Animal Discoveries 2019" and "Skinks of India" were released by Union Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Babul Supriyo on Friday. He also released "Plant Discoveries, 2019" of Botanical Survey of India (BSI) on the same occasion.
