The Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) has identified 778 new species of fauna in the last five years in protected areas in forests, wetlands, deserts and coral reefs in the country. The ZSI have identified more than 5,000 fauna species new to scientific world till date. In 2014, the ZSI discovered 24 species of frogs, 23 species of fish and two species of reptiles, which was a major one. In 2012 an important bird species named as Rallinasp was identified from the Great Nicobar Islands.

In Western Ghats, one of the 34 hotspots of biodiversity in the world,  scientists found 248 species new to science from there, including 43 species of vertebrate and 162 species of invertebrates in 2013.  India is one of the 17 megadiversity countries in the world and has 6.77% of faunal diversity. So far, out of the 10 million estimated in the world, 1.8 million species have been named.

As on today, 96,891 species have been identified in India. Western Ghats and Eastern Himalayas are the two important biodiversity hotspots in the country due to which, India tops the rank in the availability of most number of endemics in the region.