Why in news
A total of 641 species — 442 entirely new to science and 199 newly recorded in the country — were added to Indian fauna in 2023.
India added 339 taxa — 326 species and 13 infraspecific taxa — to its plant database.
Of these, 171 taxa are new to science and 168 new to distributional records from India.
Taxa can refer to sub-species or varieties of a plant species.
Most of the new animal discoveries were reported from southern India.
Kerala topped the list, with 101 additions — 74 completely new species, 27 new records — followed by West Bengal with 72 new species, and Tamil Nadu with 64.
West Bengal recorded the highest number of new plant discoveries, with 52 new taxa, followed by Kerala and Uttarakhand.
New members
Curcuma kakchingense, a new species of turmeric discovered at Kakching in Manipur
Asystasia venui, a flowering plant discovered in the Acharya Jagdish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden at Howrah in West Bengal.
Capra himalayensis, the Himalayan Ibex, distributed in the trans-Himalayan ranges of Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh and Himachal Pradesh
Miniopterus srinii, a new species of bent-winged bat, was found in Kodagu district of Karnataka
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