New finds highlight Great Nicobar project site’s biodiversity, Pg14

Key Highlights:

• A new snake species, Lycodon irwini, and a potentially new bird species, Great Nicobar Crake (Rallina sp), have been discovered at the Great Nicobar Island mega infrastructure project site.
• The Lycodon irwini has only four records till date and was described in November in the journal Evolutionary Systematics.
• Nearly 40 new species have been reported from the island since 2021, including frogs, crabs, geckos, and insects.
• Great Nicobar Island has 650 species of plants and over 1,800 species of fauna, exhibiting about 24% endemism among some faunal groups.

Detailed Insights:

• The new wolf snake, Lycodon irwini, was named after the Australian zookeeper Steve Irwin, and researchers recommend it be classified as “Endangered” under IUCN Red List criteria due to its rarity and potential threats.
• The Great Nicobar Crake (Rallina sp), found on the east coast of Great Nicobar, may be a new species due to its distinctive morphological features, but very little is known of its biology, distribution, or population status.
• The regular discovery of new species highlights the island’s rich biodiversity, with nearly half of the 40 new species being described in 2025 alone.
• Great Nicobar Island's tropical rain forest requires total protection, according to ornithologist Asad Rahmani, given its ecological significance.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Endemism: The ecological state of a species being unique to a defined geographic location.
• Biodiversity: The variety of life in the world or in a particular habitat or ecosystem.
• IUCN Red List: The world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biological species.