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IUCN Red List and Threatened Species: asked and not asked.
UPSC has asked 20 of these 28. 18 came more than once. 8 have not come yet. Lock the repeated ones first, then read the rest.
First, the concept
The IUCN (founded 1948, headquarters Gland, Switzerland) keeps the Red List of threatened species. Its categories, from worst: Extinct, Extinct in the Wild, Critically Endangered, Endangered, Vulnerable, Near Threatened, Least Concern; plus Data Deficient and Not Evaluated.
'Threatened' means the three middle ones: Critically Endangered, Endangered and Vulnerable. India's own law is the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
Statuses change after each review, so the lines below give the status of recent years.
🔁 Asked again and again (18)
Tap a year to open that solved question.
Critically Endangered
- Gharial · Chambal river; fish-eating crocodile 5 times:20172017201720152013
- Great Indian Bustard · Thar desert, Rajasthan; power lines are a big threat 4 times:2020201220101979
- Indian vultures (white-rumped, long-billed, slender-billed, red-headed) · Killed by the cattle painkiller diclofenac 2 times:20122009
Endangered
- Tiger · India has about three-quarters of the world's wild tigers 15 times:202620202020202020192019
- Hoolock gibbon · India's only ape; North-East 9 times:202620102008200820082004
- Ganges river dolphin · National Aquatic Animal; almost blind 4 times:2019201520141999
- Lion-tailed macaque · Western Ghats; Silent Valley 4 times:2024201320121994
- Asiatic lion · Only in Gir, Gujarat 3 times:201919901985
- Red panda · Sikkim's state animal; eastern Himalaya 2 times:20122007
- Indian pangolin · Most trafficked mammal, for its scales 2 times:20212004
Vulnerable and others
- Gaur, sloth bear, leopard · All Vulnerable 4 times:2024202320122012
- One-horned rhinoceros · Vulnerable; Kaziranga has the most 2 times:20191999
- Olive ridley turtle · Vulnerable; mass nesting (arribada) at Gahirmatha, Odisha 2 times:20152002
- Snow leopard · Vulnerable since 2017; Hemis, Ladakh 2 times:20122012
- Dugong (sea cow) · Vulnerable; Gulf of Mannar, Andaman 2 times:20152009
Lists, laws and comebacks
- Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 · Amended in 2022; schedules cut to four 7 times:202220202017201720152015
- Red Data Book · The record of threatened species; pink pages for critically endangered 3 times:202620112011
- Cheetah reintroduction · Declared extinct in India in 1952; brought from Namibia to Kuno (Madhya Pradesh) in 2022 3 times:202420172012
✅ Asked once (2)
❌ Not asked by UPSC yet (8)
Items marked 'asked in UPPCS' have already come in the UP state exam, so examiners do use them.
Critically Endangered
- Siberian crane · Once wintered at Keoladeo asked in UPPCS
- Bengal Florican · Terai grasslands, including Dudhwa
- Jerdon's courser · Andhra Pradesh; a bird thought lost, found again in 1986
Endangered
- Asian elephant · Karnataka has the most asked in UPPCS
- Nilgiri tahr · Eravikulam, Kerala; Tamil Nadu's state animal
- Dhole (wild dog) · Hunts in packs; Western Ghats and central India
Vulnerable and others
- Blackbuck · Least Concern since 2017 (was Near Threatened); Velavadar
Lists, laws and comebacks
- Pink-headed duck · Probably extinct; last seen in the 1940s
⚠️ Snow leopard moved from Endangered to Vulnerable in 2017. The rhino is Vulnerable, not Endangered. The cheetah came from Namibia, not South America.
'Asked' is checked against the solved UPSC questions on this site. 'Not asked yet' does not mean it will surely come.