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Kerala has emerged as the leading state for new faunal discoveries in India, according to a new report by the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) that records an unprecedented 683 species and subspecies found in 2024 alone, the highest ever in a single calendar year since formal documentation began in 2008.
The report, Animal Discoveries: New Species and New Records 2024, prepared by ZSI director Dhriti Banerjee along with scientists C Raghunathan, Anjum N Rizvi and Jayita Sengupta, was released by Union environment, forest and climate change minister Bhupender Yadav during the organisation’s 110th anniversary celebrations in Kolkata, West Bengal recently.
“It is a great achievement for ZSI and I congratulate its scientists for this great deed,” Yadav said at the event. “With their robust, time-series data on the country’s faunal resources, India is actively working to preserve and protect its biodiversity.”
The new edition includes information on 105,244 species and subspecies recorded by ZSI scientists since the institution was founded in 1916.
The ZSI report notes that of the 683 species documented in 2024, 459 are globally new, while the remaining 224 have been recorded for the first time in India. This surpasses the previous highs of 662 species in 2022 and 641 in 2023.
Kerala accounted for the most discoveries, with 101 species (80 new and 21 new records), followed by Karnataka (82), Arunachal Pradesh (72), Tamil Nadu (63), West Bengal (56), the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (43), Meghalaya (42) and Uttarakhand (31).
In contrast, the lowest number of species were reported from Chandigarh, Delhi, Haryana and Telangana. “The highest number of species are reported from the southern part of India,” the report observes.
This latest compilation brings the total number of species and subspecies recorded by ZSI scientists to 105,244 since the institution’s inception in 1916. The trend of rising discoveries in recent years is notable—2022 saw 662 species documented, while 641 were reported in 2023.
Although comprehensive year-wise data before 2008 is unavailable, ZSI researchers acknowledge that the numbers were significantly lower in earlier decades due to less intensive documentation and the absence of advanced technological tools.
“The Zoological Survey of India's achievement of 683 new faunal discoveries in 2024 represents the highest milestone since we began publishing Animal Discoveries in 2008,” said Banerjee. “This unprecedented success is the result of systematic taxonomic research and advanced molecular techniques, even as India faces immense biodiversity pressures from its population of 1.4 billion.”
Banerjee, an entomologist and the first woman to head the 110-year-old institution, added that ZSI’s roadmap includes expanding taxonomic capacity, establishing specialised groups for underexplored taxa and collaborating with international institutions to fast-track documentation in biodiversity hotspots.
Among the newly discovered species is a snake found in Himachal Pradesh, Anguiculus dicaprioi, named in honour of actor and environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio. “The specific epithet ‘dicaprioi’ is a patronym honouring DiCaprio, an American actor, film producer and environmentalist who has been actively involved in creating awareness about global climate change, increased biodiversity loss and human health issues through pollution,” read the report.
At the conclusion of the Animal Taxonomy Summit 2025, held during the ZSI anniversary celebrations, several recommendations were proposed by Indian and international experts for submission to the Union environment ministry.
Key proposals included conducting comprehensive vulnerability and risk assessments for endemic faunal species in the eastern Himalayas and northeast India, and developing targeted conservation strategies. The report also called for timely fund disbursement and enhanced use of ZSI’s institutional capacities.
The recommendations further urged the adoption of several key measures to strengthen conservation efforts across the country. These include the establishment of integrated biodiversity surveillance systems that bring together taxonomy, conservation genetics, and community-sourced data to support timely policy-making and public health responses.
They also called for the creation of a national stakeholder grid, alongside a centralised digital platform, to enable prompt reporting and coordinated action against invasive insect pests.
To protect wildlife from the impacts of infrastructure development, the report emphasised the need for scientifically designed mitigation features, such as underpasses, overpasses, tunnels, and arboreal bridges, that help preserve habitat connectivity and significantly reduce roadkill.
Among the marine-focused proposals were the formation of a National Repository and Taxonomic Consortium for Marine Species, as well as the establishment of a dedicated regional centre of the ZSI in Lakshadweep. The latter would specifically cater to the unique biodiversity and conservation needs of the atoll reef ecosystem.
