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Ecology & Environment

Threatened Species of India

Critically Endangered, Endangered and Vulnerable species.

IUCN statuses change, so keep them updated from current affairs.

Three categories mean threatened: Critically Endangered, Endangered and Vulnerable. What each of them means, and the categories either side of them, is set out below the list.

Endangered

11 species

  • Egyptian VultureNeophron percnopterus

    Bird

    Open arid country, village edges, rubbish tips and cliffs for nesting.

    One of very few birds known to use tools: it throws stones to break open ostrich and other large eggs. The smallest of the Indian vultures and largely resident.

    Rajasthan · Gujarat · Haryana · Madhya Pradesh · Maharashtra · Uttar Pradesh · Punjab · Karnataka · Bihar

  • Steppe EagleAquila nipalensis

    Bird

    Open grassland, agricultural fields, wetland margins and rubbish dumps in winter. Large congregations at Jorbeer near Bikaner and in the Rann of Kutch.

    A long-distance migrant breeding in the Central Asian steppe. India is one of its most important wintering grounds; secondary poisoning at carcass dumps is an emerging threat.

    Gujarat · Rajasthan · Ladakh · Madhya Pradesh · Haryana · Uttar Pradesh · Bihar

  • Indian SkimmerRynchops albicollis

    Bird

    Sandbars and mid-river islands of large rivers. Chambal is the global stronghold; winters at Chilika and Bhitarkanika.

    The lower mandible is markedly longer than the upper. It feeds by flying low with the lower bill slicing the water surface, snapping shut on contact with a fish. Uplisted from Vulnerable in 2020.

    Madhya Pradesh · Uttar Pradesh · Rajasthan · Odisha · Andhra Pradesh · Assam · Bihar

  • Black-bellied TernSterna acuticauda

    Bird

    Sandbanks and shingle islands of large rivers such as the Ganga, Chambal and Brahmaputra.

    Nests directly on open river sand, which makes it extremely vulnerable to sand mining, dam-driven flow changes and dogs.

    Madhya Pradesh · Uttar Pradesh · Assam · Odisha · Bihar · Rajasthan

  • Pallas's Fish EagleHaliaeetus leucoryphus

    Bird

    Large lakes, rivers and wetlands with tall nesting trees. Recorded from many Ramsar sites including Bhindawas, Haiderpur and Wadhvana.

    Breeds in winter, unusually for a raptor, timing chick rearing to the dry-season concentration of fish.

    Assam · Arunachal Pradesh · Uttar Pradesh · Bihar · West Bengal · Haryana · Punjab

  • Forest OwletAthene blewitti

    BirdEndemic · Central India

    Dry deciduous teak forest with open glades. Melghat, Tansa and the Toranmal belt are key sites.

    Rediscovered in 1997 after 113 years, in a rediscovery that also exposed a famous nineteenth century specimen fraud. Diurnal, unusually for an owl, and hunts lizards from an exposed perch.

    Maharashtra · Madhya Pradesh · Gujarat · Odisha

  • Nordmann's or Spotted GreenshankTringa guttifer

    Bird

    Coastal mudflats, saltpans and estuarine lagoons in winter, including Chilika and Point Calimere.

    One of the rarest shorebirds in Asia, breeding only on the Sea of Okhotsk coast, where it nests in larch trees rather than on the ground.

    Odisha · West Bengal · Tamil Nadu · Andhra Pradesh

  • White-winged Wood DuckAsarcornis scutulata

    Bird

    Secluded pools and swampy clearings inside dense tropical evergreen forest. Namdapha and Dihing Patkai are strongholds.

    State bird of Assam, known locally as deo hanh, the spirit duck, for its ghostly nocturnal calls. Nests in tree hollows.

    Assam · Arunachal Pradesh · Nagaland · Meghalaya

  • Great KnotCalidris tenuirostris

    Bird

    Intertidal mudflats of both coasts, notably the Gulf of Kachchh and Point Calimere.

    Undertakes one of the longest non-stop flights of any shorebird. Its decline is driven almost entirely by reclamation of Yellow Sea staging mudflats.

    Gujarat · Odisha · Tamil Nadu · Andhra Pradesh · Maharashtra · West Bengal

  • Finn's WeaverPloceus megarhynchus

    BirdEndemic · Terai belt

    Tall wet grassland and sugarcane in the terai, nesting colonially in isolated trees.

    Also called the yellow weaver. Unlike the common baya weaver it builds an untidy globular nest high in a solitary tree and is far more dependent on intact grassland.

    Uttarakhand · Uttar Pradesh · Assam · West Bengal

  • Manipur Bush QuailPerdicula manipurensis

    Bird

    Dense wet grassland and reedbeds of the Manipur valley and the Brahmaputra plain.

    Extremely secretive, with almost no confirmed recent records outside a few Assam grasslands.

    Manipur · Assam · Nagaland · Meghalaya

What the categories mean

IUCN Red List
  1. EXExtinctNo reasonable doubt the last individual has died.
  2. EWExtinct in the WildSurvives only in cultivation, captivity or as a naturalised population outside its range.
  3. CRCritically EndangeredFacing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild.
  4. ENEndangeredFacing a very high risk of extinction in the wild.
  5. VUVulnerableFacing a high risk of extinction in the wild.
  6. NTNear ThreatenedClose to qualifying as threatened, or likely to qualify soon. Not itself a threatened category.
  7. LCLeast ConcernAssessed, and does not qualify for any category above. Widespread and abundant species sit here.

The three that mean threatened. This page lists those and nothing else.

Outside the scale

  1. DDData DeficientNot enough information to assess the risk. It is a statement about the evidence, not about the species.
  2. NENot EvaluatedHas not yet been assessed against the criteria.

Recent status changes

11 to know

Assessments that have moved. Some of these species are no longer threatened and so are not in the list above.

  • Greater Adjutant

    Downlisted from Endangered to Near Threatened in the 2023 Red List update, after the Hargila Army community programme in Assam raised nests in Kamrup from 28 in 2010 to more than 250. It should no longer be taught as Endangered.

  • Lesser Adjutant

    Downlisted from Vulnerable to Near Threatened in 2023.

  • Painted Stork

    Downlisted from Near Threatened to Least Concern in 2023.

  • Snow Leopard

    Downlisted from Endangered to Vulnerable in 2017. Many Indian study materials still say Endangered.

  • Fishing Cat

    Downlisted from Endangered to Vulnerable in 2016.

  • Asiatic Lion

    The subspecies Panthera leo persica is assessed Endangered; the species Panthera leo is assessed Vulnerable. Both statements appear in print, so specify which you mean.

  • Himalayan Brown Bear

    Often listed as Endangered or Critically Endangered in Indian material. The IUCN assesses the species Ursus arctos as Least Concern and has not assessed the Himalayan subspecies separately. It is Schedule I under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, which is a different thing from an IUCN category.

  • Red Sanders

    Downlisted from Endangered to Near Threatened in 2018, though it remains heavily trafficked and CITES-listed.

  • Indian Wild Ass

    The species Equus hemionus is Near Threatened, not Endangered. The khur population in the Rann of Kachchh has grown steadily.

  • Blackbuck

    Least Concern since 2017, not Near Threatened. It remains Schedule I in India.

  • Black-necked Crane

    Downlisted from Vulnerable to Near Threatened in 2020.

What is being done

Species Recovery Programme

The Government of India runs targeted recovery programmes for 22 entries covering 32 species, under the Integrated Development of Wildlife Habitats scheme. Three of them are Least Concern on the Red List and are on the national list all the same, because a programme answers to what has happened in India rather than to the species everywhere.

The Species Recovery Programme →
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