India's wildlife at risk, endangered species list doubles in 2 yrs

Rapid decrease in suitable habitat across India has resulted in the addition of 253 new species of wildlife in the endangered list in just two years. The number of endangered species in 2010 was 190, which jumped sharply to 443 in 2012.

Updated on: Nov 30, 2014, 12:33:22 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

Rapid decrease in suitable habitat across India has resulted in the addition of 253 new species of wildlife in the endangered list in just two years. The number of endangered species in 2010 was 190, which jumped sharply to 443 in 2012, according to the latest data by the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI).

The startling information became public through a Comptroller and Auditor General’s report tabled in the Parliament on Friday highlighting malaise in the ZSI, a 100-year-old institution, and its failure to conduct status surveys of endangered species — its primary objective.

The ZSI list is split in five categories: mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish. Of them, birds were hardest hit with 139 species on the list in 2012 – up from 57 in 2010. The list includes the Nicobar Megapode, Black-necked Crane and Jerdon’s Curser.

“Birds are the first sign of health of a habitat and quality of life,” said Fayaz Khudsar, a biologist in the Delhi University. “As the external environmental parameters are not conducive, the birds of specialist foraging guild are shrinking and the list of endangered birds is enlarging.”

The number of mammals on the endangered list has gone up from 62 in 2010 to 123 in 2012 and includes the Snow Leopard, Hangul Kashmir Stag and the Pygmy Hog.

Rapid water contamination has taken a toll on the fishes too with 45 new species added to the list for a total of 67 endangered species in 2012.

39 new species of Amphibians have been added to the list – up from 35 species in 2010 to 74 in 2012. The Anamalai Flying Frog, Gundia Indian Frog and Kerala Indian Frog figure on the list.

There are now 40 endangered reptiles – up from 14 in 2010 – including Gharial, Hawksbill Turtle and the Red-crowned Roofed Turtle. Blaming the ZSI for failing to carry out its mandate to provide direction to the government for protecting India’s massive biodiversity, the CAG said status surveys were carried out on only three endangered species since 1993 and were ‘insignificant’.

The institute also failed to perform its primary job of regularly updating the Red Data Book --- the country’s official record of threatened species, said the national auditor. The book was last updated about 20 years ago and the environment ministry blamed lack of expertise and logistical constraints for ZSI’s failure.

This was despite money being provided for the job.

India is home to about 8% of the world’s total species and has one of the finest biological hotspots on the globe. An estimated 45,000 plant and 89,000 animal species have been recorded in Indian forests so far.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

Get the latest India News, breaking headlines and real-time updates from across the country. Stay informed about politics, government policies, crime, weather and major national developments.