Bangladesh is preparing a new National Red List after confirming that 31 wildlife species — including mammals, birds, and reptiles — have gone extinct. The updated assessment reflects accelerating habitat loss and human pressure on biodiversity. Against this grim backdrop, one conservation success stands out: the country's tiger population rose to 125 in 2024, up from previous counts. New targeted conservation measures are being planned for remaining threatened species listed in the forthcoming Red List.

A National Red List is a country-level adaptation of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species — the global gold standard for assessing extinction risk. The IUCN framework classifies species across nine categories: Not Evaluated, Data Deficient, Least Concern, Near Threatened, Vulnerable, Endangered, Critically Endangered, Extinct in the Wild, and Extinct. A National Red List uses the same methodology but applies it to a species' status within a specific country's borders, meaning a species can be nationally extinct while surviving elsewhere globally.

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), adopted at COP15 in 2022, sets the '30x30' target — protecting 30% of land and oceans by 2030 — and commits nations to halt human-induced extinction of known threatened species. Bangladesh's Red List update directly feeds into its obligations under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), of which it is a signatory.

For India, the IUCN Red List is regularly tested in exams — aspirants must know the category hierarchy, which Indian species fall under which category (e.g., Snow Leopard: Vulnerable; Great Indian Bustard: Critically Endangered), and that India hosts 4 of the world's 36 recognised biodiversity hotspots. The IUCN, headquartered in Gland, Switzerland, publishes its Red List periodically; India's nodal authority for wildlife is the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), with the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) providing scientific inputs.