Overview
- Botanical Survey of India researchers published a peer‑reviewed report in Oryx on July 9, 2026 confirming Cyananthus hookeri in Tawang district, Arunachal Pradesh.
- The team located the plants on alpine grassy and rocky slopes near Chuna Valley, close to Mago village at about 3,600 metres during a September field survey.
- Researchers counted fewer than 50 mature individuals at a single, highly localised site, a population size that drove their recommendation for an Endangered listing under IUCN criteria in India.
- The species was last recorded in India in 1867 by Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker and is otherwise known only from scattered pockets across the eastern Himalaya, which explains its prolonged absence from Indian field records.
- Conservationists say the find can trigger formal national and IUCN assessments and targeted protection of fragile high‑altitude habitat that is vulnerable to disturbance and climate change.