Systematic characterization and quantification of biodiversity is an essential prerequisite for its conservation, management and sustainable utilization. As natural habitats are being fragmented and more and more life forms are facing a bleak future countrywide, at no time in history has it been more imperative for us to switch over from mere protection of biodiversity to its conservation: the latter entails active scientific management measures, whereas the former is largely an issue of policing2–5. Enactment and implementation of imprudent and counterproductive legislations such as the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 (refs 6–8) are not only impeding urgently needed, scientifically formulated conservation programmes, but also making research a criminal activity in India. The implementing agencies (originally meant for dealing with unlawful activities), armed with such anti-science, draconian regulations, conveniently refuse to differentiate between sampling by well-experienced field biologists and poaching by criminals. In such a milieu, it is not surprising that the very first individuals arrested and convicted as per the Biological Diversity Act are not poachers, but practising taxonomists whose work is of immense value in the conservation of biodiversity9,10!