The Southern Regional Centre was established during the 2nd Five Year Plan on 9th March 1961 to conduct faunal explorations in southern peninsular India. The jurisdiction of the centre cover entire Tamil Nadu, Southern Karnataka, Southern Andhra Pradesh and Union Territory of Puducherry which is about 1,50,000 Km2. All protected areas within this jurisdiction is covered by the centre which comprise of three biosphere reserves, nine tiger reserves, 9 National Parks and 43 wildlife sanctuaries. The region under the jurisdiction covers all ecosystems of southern Western Ghats and southern Deccan province. The region is also one of the global biodiversity hotspots with several endemic and endangered species and some of the world-renowned protected areas are located here.  

The most significant contribution of the center is the scientific inputs it provided for the establishment of Silent Valley National Park (Palakkad, Kerala) and Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve (Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka). These protected areas were established based on the explorations conducted by the scientists of the centre a few decades ago. The centre has significantly contributed towards the discovery of several new species of amphibians, freshwater fishes, aquatic hemipterans, dipterans, mayfly and  dragonflies from peninsular India. The National Zoological Collections of the centre comprises of over 400,000 specimens including type specimens largely collected from the southern India. 

The centre is equipped with state of the art light microscopy facility, DNA laboratory, GIS facility, library and other scientific infrastructure to conduct studies on faunal diversity. Several national projects sponsored by MoEF&CC, DST and Forest Departments are operationalized through the Centre. 

During 2022-23 tthe centre has completed documentation fauna of the Meghamalai wildlife sanctuary and Aghastyamalai biosphere reserve. in 2022-23 sixteen new species of Ephemeroptera and one new species of Pscoptera were discovered in addition, two species of Ephemeroptera and one species of Hymenoptera were reported as new to India.  Two books, eleven research articles and twenty two book chapters were published in 2022-23.

The centre is a recognized research institute under the University of Madras for Ph.D. programme. Currently twelve students are pursuing their Ph.D.  

A common butterfly of forest areas of the India.