A specialist group of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) would conduct a first of its kind red-list assessment of grasshopper species in Nilgiri biosphere reserve in south India followed by other parts of the country.
The assessment, to be done by IUCN’s Species Survival Commission (SSC), Grasshoppers Specialist Group, would study the ecosystem by taking grasshoppers as its indicators, and also steps for their conservation.
Dhaneesh Bhaskar, vice-chair, IUCN’s SSC, Grasshoppers Specialist Group, said the assessment will help in understanding the condition of the grasshopper’s ecosystem.
“The grasshoppers are primarily considered as agricultural pest which is not true as they live in all sorts of environments except those covered in snow. They are basically the indicators of the ecosystem and environment which means their survival status explains a lot about the environment they are living in,” said Bhaskar.
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He said the project will be started from the Nilgiri biosphere reserve spread in three states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. “We have made a list of at least 30 species of grasshoppers which live in the forests of Nilgiri including the ones living on trees, ground and those which are semi-amphibious. We would study their present survival status and then chalk out actions for their conservation, if needed,” said Bhaskar.
{{/usCountry}}He said the project will be started from the Nilgiri biosphere reserve spread in three states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. “We have made a list of at least 30 species of grasshoppers which live in the forests of Nilgiri including the ones living on trees, ground and those which are semi-amphibious. We would study their present survival status and then chalk out actions for their conservation, if needed,” said Bhaskar.
{{/usCountry}}The project is funded by United Arab Emirates-based Mohammad Bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund, which works for the conservation of different species across the world.
“The assessment project in Nilgiri biosphere reserve will be started in 2021 and will be completed in two years. Once we complete it in Nilgiri forests, we would extend it to the other parts of the country where grasshoppers are found,” said Bhaskar.
Axel Hochkirch, chairman, IUCN SSC Invertebrate Conservation Committee and based in Trier University, Germany, who is also looking after the project, said the assessment will be “helpful in the conservation of grasshopper species”.
Interacting over e-mail from Germany, he said, “Red list assessment is of fundamental importance for nature conservation as it helps to identify species with high extinction risk. Without this knowledge, it will not be possible to save species from conservation.”
“For the IUCN red list of threatened species, which is the most widely accepted system for measuring extinction risk of species, we collect all information on the distribution, population, habitat preferences, threats and conservation activities. For many species, this information might not be readily available for which field studies are needed, like the one in Nilgiri,” said Hochkirch.
He said that international body will follow the “Assess-Plan-Act principle” in the assessment. “The principle comprises assessing the conservation status of species and identifying major threats, planning necessary conservation action based on the red list assessments and implementing the conservation action,” said Hochkirch.