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Biodiversity loss: India ranks among the worst five countries

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Dr Satish Misra

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New Delhi | Wednesday | 6 November 2024

The latest findings of the 2024 Nature Conservation Index (NCI) show that India is among the worst five nations in biodiversity loss and a lack of conservation efforts.

India’s score is 45.5, and it ranks 176 out of 180 nations studied. Only Kiribati, Turkey, Iraq, and Micronesia have scored lower than India. 

The first-ever NCI launched in October, evaluates conservation efforts using four markers — land management, threats to biodiversity, capacity and governance, and future trends. 

While the world report is alarming, the reaction of the Modi government is going to be predictable. It would be an outright rejection with comments like the report is biased towards India, etc.   

The top five nations in terms of conservation and protection of biodiversity are Luxembourg, Estonia, Denmark, Finland and the United Kingdom, according to the index developed by the Goldman Sonnenfeldt School of Sustainability and Climate Change in Israel’s Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and nonprofit website BioDB.

Article at a Glance

The 2024 Nature Conservation Index (NCI) has ranked India among the bottom five nations for biodiversity loss and inadequate conservation efforts, scoring 45.5 and placing 176 out of 180 countries.
Only Kiribati, Turkey, Iraq, and Micronesia scored lower. The NCI evaluates conservation through four key markers: land management, threats to biodiversity, capacity and governance, and future trends. Despite India's rich biodiversity, housing 7-8% of the world’s species, it faces significant challenges, including habitat loss and pollution.
 Neighbouring countries rank better, highlighting India's urgent need for improved conservation legislation and stronger enforcement against illegal wildlife trade. Political leaders, including Congress officials, have criticized the government’s response to the report, emphasizing the need for robust conservation strategies to secure a sustainable future.

“India is one of the world’s mega-diverse countries, with about 7-8 per cent of the world’s documented species spread over only 2.4 per cent of total land area,” the NCI 2024 citation said on the BioDb website. 

“Even recently becoming the world’s most populous country, India maintains its diverse range of wildlife and habitats. From the snowy Himalayas to the tropical Western Ghats and the arid Thar Desert, India offers a wide range of habitats supporting diverse creatures.

“Along with famous animals like the Asian elephant, Indian rhinoceros, and Bengal tiger, it is home to a wide range of birds, reptiles, and marine life. Four of the 36 globally designated biodiversity hotspots with areas in Indian jurisdiction, are the Himalayas, Indo-Burma, the Western Ghats, and Sundaland. Additionally, India has over 92,037 animal species (of which 61,375 are insects) and 45,500 plant species across its 10 biogeographic regions,” it added.

According to the NCI website, the report has examined 25 indicators to analyse the biodiversity of 180 countries. The primary pillars of this biodiversity and conservation study are land management, threats to diversity, capacity and governance, and future trends.

Ranking among the worst means that India suffers from habitat loss, and pollution, and wildlife and plant populations are diminishing at an unprecedented pace, according to the NCI. And conservation legislation is not up to the mark.

India’s neighbours, Bangladesh (173), Pakistan (151), Sri Lanka (90), Nepal (60), Bhutan (15) and China (164), all rank better than India.

Even comparative economies, Mexico (42), Thailand (80), Indonesia (122), and the United Arab Emirates (111), rank better than India.

Here are a few examples. In India, the population of Asian elephants numbers less than 50,000, down 50 per cent in the past 75 years. Gharials number just 650, down 98 per cent in less than a century. And tigers number 3,890, down 96 per cent in less than a century.

India faces both promising opportunities and serious biodiversity challenges in the years ahead stated the index under the ‘future trends pillar’. With one of the highest population densities in the world and a population that has doubled since the late 1970s, the nation's ecological wealth is under constant threat, it warned. 

Additionally, India is the fourth-largest illegal wildlife trader in the world, with annual sales worth around £15 billion, and so the index called for stronger enforcement and international cooperation.

The Congress slammed the Modi government over India’s low ranking in the report.

“Whenever India gets a very low rank on some global index or the other, the immediate response of the non-biological PM’s drumbeaters and cheerleaders is to attack the index itself as a plot to defame India by agenda-driven busybody NGOs. But what will be the response to the just-released Nature Conservation Index in which India ranks a miserable 176th out of 180 countries.” Jairam Ramesh, Congress general secretary in charge, of communications, posted on X (formerly Twitter).

Strong political will is essential for the successful implementation of conservation strategies, including passing laws that support sustainable development and securing funding for environmental initiatives. 

With this commitment, India can effectively confront the upcoming conservation challenges and pave the way for a more sustainable and ecologically friendly future, the NCI Index stated optimistically.

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