A new rulebook will guide how India officially declares species 'threatened'

The National Biodiversity Authority has issued a Standard Operating Procedure for notifying threatened species under the Biological Diversity Act — giving states a uniform, science-based process to identify and protect plants and animals on the verge of extinction.

What happened

• The National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) released a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the Notification of Threatened Species under Section 38 of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002.
• The SOP aims to enable a uniform, transparent and scientifically robust process for the identification, assessment and notification of threatened species by States and Union Territories.
• Section 38 empowers the Central Government, in consultation with the concerned State Government, to notify any species on the verge of (or likely to face) extinction as a threatened species — regulating or prohibiting its collection and providing for rehabilitation and conservation; these powers may be delegated to State Governments.
• So far, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has notified 159 plant species and 173 animal species as threatened, across 17 States and 3 Union Territories.
• The SOP is designed to assist State Biodiversity Boards and UT Biodiversity Councils in scientific identification, as species face habitat degradation, overexploitation, pollution, invasive alien species and climate change.

For Prelims

• Biological Diversity Act, 2002 (amended 2023): India's law implementing the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) — covers conservation, sustainable use and Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) of biological resources.
• Three-tier structure: the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA, Chennai) at the centre, State Biodiversity Boards (SBBs) in states, and Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs) at the local body level (which maintain People's Biodiversity Registers).
• Section 38 (threatened species): Empowers the Centre, in consultation with the State, to notify species near extinction as 'threatened' and regulate their collection — the focus of the new SOP.
• Megadiverse India: India is one of the world's ~17 megadiverse countries, hosting four biodiversity hotspots (Himalaya, Indo-Burma, Western Ghats–Sri Lanka, Sundaland/Nicobar).
• Distinct from IUCN Red List: A Section-38 'threatened species' is a statutory Indian notification regulating collection — distinct from the global IUCN Red List categories (Vulnerable/Endangered/Critically Endangered), which are an assessment, not a law.
• Drivers of extinction: Habitat loss, overexploitation, pollution, invasive alien species and climate change — the threats the SOP-led notifications seek to counter.
• Don't confuse: Section 38 'threatened species' (Biological Diversity Act) is distinct from Schedule species under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 — different statutes and protection mechanisms.

For Mains

Syllabus: GS3.14 · GS2.9 · Linkage L2