{"id":111152,"date":"2026-07-03T13:13:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T07:43:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=111152"},"modified":"2026-07-03T13:13:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T07:43:20","slug":"animal-discoveries-and-plant-discoveries-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/animal-discoveries-and-plant-discoveries-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Animal Discoveries and Plant Discoveries 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Animal Discoveries and Plant Discoveries 2025 Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Union Minister for Environment, Forest, and Climate Change recently released several critical publications, notably Animal Discoveries\u20132025 and Plant Discoveries\u20132025, during the 111th Foundation Day of the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) in Kolkata.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Animal Discoveries and Plant Discoveries 2025<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>Zoological Survey of India (ZSI)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the country\u2019s premier institution for faunal exploration and research, <\/span><b>publishes Animal Discoveries every year<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> detailing the <\/span><b>new discoveries of fauna.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Similarly, the <\/span><b>Botanical Survey of India (BSI),<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the country\u2019s premier organisation for plant research and taxonomy, publishes <\/span><b>Plant Discoveries <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">every year detailing the n<\/span><b>ew discoveries of flora.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Highlights of Animal Discoveries 2025<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>India added 709 new species to its fauna<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in 2025, which includes <\/span><b>483 species new to science <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and <\/span><b>226 species recorded<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for the<\/span><b> first time in India.\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>India&#8217;s total faunal biodiversity<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> now reaches <\/span><b>105,953 species<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, reinforcing its position as a global megadiverse nation.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Among the states, <\/span><b>Kerala <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">recorded the<\/span><b> highest number of new species (98),<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> followed by <\/span><b>West Bengal (76), Karnataka (67), <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and Arunachal Pradesh (65).\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Among the animal groups<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> added to the country\u2019s fauna <\/span><b>Hymenoptera contributed the highest number of additions (106),<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> followed by Lepidoptera (65), Diptera (64), Arachnida (64), Coleoptera (55), and Pisces (50), reflecting the remarkable diversity and continuing discovery of India\u2019s invertebrate fauna.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Among the crucial fauna discovered <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in 2025 are\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Myotis himalaicus<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a <\/span><b>new species of Himayalan bat.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Ptyctolaemus namdaphaensis and Ptyctolaemu siangensis<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are two newly discovered species of <\/span><b>green fan-throated lizard <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">from <\/span><b>Arunachal Pradesh.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Lycodon irwini,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> a species commonly known as<\/span><b> Irwin\u2019s wolf snake,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> discovered on the remote <\/span><b>Great Nicobar Island.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Highlights of Plant Discoveries 2025<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It records the <\/span><b>addition of 353 taxa <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to the country\u2019s floral inventory,<\/span><b> comprising 339 species <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and <\/span><b>14 infraspecific taxa.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Of these, <\/span><b>221 taxa<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> have been described as <\/span><b>new to science,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> while <\/span><b>132 taxa <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">represent <\/span><b>new distributional records for India.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Among the states, <\/span><b>Arunachal Pradesh<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> emerged as the<\/span><b> leading contributor with 49 discoveries<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, followed by <\/span><b>Uttarakhand (39) and Kerala (37).\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Nearly 64 percent <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of all newly documented taxa were recorded from the <\/span><b>Himalayan region, the Western Ghats,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and the <\/span><b>North-Eastern states.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It documents <\/span><b>154 angiosperms, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">three pteridophytes, 13 bryophytes, 62 lichens, 93 fungi, 22 algae, and six microbes.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Approximately<\/span><b> 43%<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the newly described taxa belong to <\/span><b>vascular plants.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Among the <\/span><b>most notable discoveries<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are several <\/span><b>wild relatives <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of economically and ecologically significant <\/span><b>plant groups, including Begonia, Impatiens (balsams), legumes, and orchids.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Among the crucial plants discovered are,<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Polystichum siangense,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> a recently discovered species of <\/span><b>fern <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">belonging to the family Dryopteridaceae, found in the Siang district of<\/span><b> Arunachal Pradesh.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Miliusa beddomei, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a new wild member of the<\/span><b> custard apple family <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">discovered in the <\/span><b>Western Ghats.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Hericium indicum,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> a recently discovered species of <\/span><b>wild edible tooth fungus <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in <\/span><b>Uttarakhand<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>News<\/b><strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/aimamedia.org\/news\/684780\/zsi-celebrates-111th-foundation-day-with-animal-taxonomy-summit-2026\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">AIMA<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Animal Discoveries and Plant Discoveries are annually published by the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) and the Botanical Survey of India (BSI), respectively.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":111141,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8476],"class_list":{"0":"post-111152","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-animal-discoveries-and-plant-discoveries-2025","9":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111152"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":111166,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111152\/revisions\/111166"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}