The United Nations General Assembly has proclaimed 2010 as the International Year of Biodiversity (IYB) to raise awareness about the underlying threats to and the need for biodiversity conservation. As a mega-diverse country and as a Party to the International Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), India had committed itself to achieving the 2010 Biodiversity Target, adopted by the sixth Conference of the Parties (CoP) to the CBD, to significantly reduce the rate of loss of biodiversity....