New Study published in journal Nature Sustainability warns about Invasive Alien Species

Posted 04 Dec 2025

2 min read

Article Summary

India faces increasing invasive species impact, threatening ecosystems, livelihoods, and economy, urging a national strategy for prevention, control, and community involvement.

Invasive alien species (IAS) are those plants, animals, or microorganisms that do not naturally belong to a region but, once introduced, spread quickly and disturb the local balance.

Key highlights of the study

Expansion of IAS: Annually, ~15,500 km² natural areas in India are invaded by at least one new IAS.
- Invasive alien plants have already doubled their range in ecologically sensitive regions eg. Western Ghats(WGs), Himalayas and north-east.
Impacting Natural Ecosystem: Almost 2/3rd of India’s natural ecosystems now contain at least 11 major IASs, eg. Lantana camara, Chromolaena odorata, Prosopis juliflora etc.
Climate Change–Driven Spread: Wet-biome invaders eg. Ageratina adenophora, Mikania micrantha expanded with rising temperatures and declining soil moisture
- Conversely, dry biomes invasions e.g., Xanthium strumarium increased with increasing rainfall.

Impacts of IAS

Threatening Livelihood: eg. Prosopis juliflora often block access to pasture, firewood and water and can cause respiratory illness.
Threat to Wildlife- eg. By 2022, invasions had impacted more than 1 lakh sq km of tiger habitat.
Threat to Biodiversity- eg. Lantana camara suppressed native vegetation in India's Western Ghats.
Economic -India’s economic losses from IASs (1960 -2020) is $127.3 billion.

Way Ahead

Need for a National mission - for better co-ordination and integration and to counter the lack of dedicated national institutional mechanism or database
Prevention: Stop new invasive species from entering through stricter checks on trade, travel, and shipping (like ballast water management).
Empowerment: communities suffering the impacts must be involved in the process of recovery and monitoring.
Following best practices - eg. Mandatory Pest Risk Analysis of New Zealand for all new or imported products to predict the possibility of Invasions.