400 species added to 'threatened' list

An island-dwelling cockroach and a tiny snail were declared extinct yesterday while 400 plants and animals were added to a threatened "Red List" as global environment ministers met in India.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) updated its authoritative study on the state of biodiversity on Earth, saying 20,219 species were at risk of dying out.
It added 402 species such as the Egyptian dab lizard and the Sichuan Taimen, a fresh water fish from China, to the "Red List", which puts them in the threatened category.
Two invertebrates, a cockroach from the Seychelles last seen in 1905 and a freshwater snail called Little Flat-Top from the US state of Alabama, have moved into the extinct category since the last update of the bi-annual survey in June.
The report also showed that 83 percent of Madagascar's 192 palm species, which the poor rely on heavily for food and housing, are at risk of extinction.