Know Before You Go

India boasts significant biodiversity with 136,000 species of plants and some of the world’s rarest animals. One of eighteen megadiverse countries, it is home to 7.6 percent of all mammalian, 12.6 percent of all avian, 6.2 percent of all reptilian, 4.4 percent of all amphibian, 11.7 percent of all fish, and 6.0 percent of all flowering plant species.

In recent decades, human encroachment has put India’s wildlife at risk. In a call to action, the system of national parks and protected areas, first established in 1935, largely expanded their breadth. India enacted the Wildlife Protection Act and Project Tiger in 1972, in order to preserve crucial habitat. Further federal protections were ratified in the 1980s. There are now fourteen biosphere reserves in India (four of which are a part of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves), in addition to over 500 wildlife sanctuaries, and 25 wetlands registered under the Ramsar Conventions.

Click the links below to learn more about each species.