Using the Area of Habitat to assess the extent of protection of India's birds

India hosts multiple global biodiversity hotspots while being one of the
most populous countries in the world. Here, we examine how well India has
protected its avifauna, based on the fraction of their ranges falling
within “protected areas.” India has protected 5% of its land this way. The
issue is whether India has done better than expected in protecting its
threatened species. To this end, we assessed 99 Near Threatened,
Threatened, and small-ranged species by estimating their Area of Habitat
(AOH). We refined published species ranges using secondary information on
elevation limits and habitat preferences. More than half (52) of the
species assessed have their AOH <30% of their published ranges,
while 31 have <10%. India has protected 87 threatened species'
AOH more than expected (>5%), and for 33 species, the proportion
protected exceeds the Aichi target (>17%). When we consider the top
10% richest regions as hotspots, only 9.2% of their total area falls under
India's protected area network, inadequately covering areas with most
threatened birds. We also discuss the conservation concerns for grassland
and open habitat species across India, since we find that substantial
proportions of their AOHs fall outside protected areas. This result
highlights the significance of alternative conservation models, including
other effective area-based conservation measures. We show that
species' AOH provides a more realistic well-informed range that can
aid in assessing their protection status.