“India Makes A Landmark Commitment To Protect Its Living Heritage”, ForPolIndia, October 10, 2025
“At the Abu Dhabi Climate Summit, India emerged as a global standard-bearer for biodiversity protection, unveiling the National Red List Assessment (NRLA), a sweeping plan to document and safeguard endangered flora and fauna with unprecedented scientific rigour.
Announced by Minister Kirti Vardhan Singh, the initiative places India firmly among nations leading with science-based conservation. The NRLA, prepared with the Zoological Survey of India, Botanical Survey of India, and IUCN India, sets out to create a comprehensive Red Data Book by 2030, a keystone document to steer national and regional environmental policy.
India, home to over 104,000 animal species and 18,800 plant species, stands as one of the world’s 17 mega-diverse nations. Nearly one-third of its biodiversity is endemic, existing nowhere else on Earth. “This assessment is not just a document,” Singh said, “but a declaration that India’s ecological wealth will be preserved through knowledge, not nostalgia…….”
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