30 Indian fish species on IUCN endangered list
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COMMENTS 
The International Union for Conservation of Nature is assessing India’s freshwater biodiversity after 13 years
Around 30 fish species in the Western Ghats have been included in the endangered species list and 15 species in the critically endangered list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), according to a preliminary IUCN report. There has been no sighting of one species of fish from the Tamil Nadu region of the Western Ghats for 20 years. The list will be released in Thiruvananthapuram towards the end of December 2010.
The IUCN is assessing India’s freshwater biodiversity (which includes molluscs, plants and insects) after a gap of 13 years.
An assessment of north India’s freshwater biodiversity has been completed and the findings updated in the IUCN’s Red List, which is a comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of plant and animal species. It has nine classifications altogether, with three separate classifications for species threatened with extinction -- vulnerable, endangered and critically endangered.
Only 13 of the 807 species of freshwater fish found in India have been assessed using the Red List criteria. Four insect species, two species of freshwater molluscs, and one species of freshwater plant have been assessed.
The Western Ghats, which are under pressure from deforestation, mining and the building of dams, is estimated to have lost 30 species over the past 60 years.
The IUCN’s assessment should prove to be an invaluable resource for freshwater biodiversity conservation and development planning should the government want to make use of the data.
A report on the status of amphibians found that India has the most number of threatened amphibian species in Asia, with 67 (25%) species facing possible extinction. Of the 38 species of amphibians in Asia that are confirmed to be extinct by the Global Amphibian Assessment (GAA), one is from India. In addition, 13 species are listed as critically endangered, 31 as endangered, and 23 as vulnerable. A further 95 species are listed in the data deficient category, indicating the number of threatened species could be much higher once information becomes available.
The IUCN has also sounded the alarm over the dwindling river dolphin population, which is down to 2,500.
Source: The Hindu, December 6, 2010
IUCN website, www.iucn.org, December 2010