Of close to 5,500 mammals assessed by the International Union for Nature Conservation (IUCN), 22.2% are extinct or globally threatened. 1,141 species of these are ‘threatened’. The Cheetah may owe its name to the Sanskrit word Citraka referring to ‘spots’, but it’s an irony that in India, it’s only the name that lives on. In 1947, when a Maharaja shot down the last three, the Asiatic Cheetah was officially declared as an extinct animal in India by 1952.
Have you ever been on a Tiger safari in Ranthambore? Or spotted a Rhino in Kaziranga? If you have, the wonders of the wild are sure to have touched you – and perhaps they even made you reflect on our lives in the city – away from the calming hues of the forest. What if you – or the children born in today’s day and age – never get to experience that?
While it was hunting and other human activities that mostly drove the Asiatic Cheetah in India to extinction, we might witness a repeat with some other animals that could soon become critically endangered species in India. The depleting numbers due to growing desertification and the crisis of habitat loss with land degradation and deforestation are alarming. Well, that is what the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species indicates. This Red List is known to be the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global conversation status of all species and is referred to by experts and conservationists around the globe. It identifies and classifies species according to their high risk of extinction and is becoming one of the endangered species of India.
What’s more? More than half of these are either critically endangered or endangered. The rest (about 505 animals) are considered vulnerable, which is one level lower according to the classification. Simply put, this means these animals are very close to extinction and their survival means the survival of our ecosystem and of generations of human beings to come.
There are 30 owl species to be found in India and most of them are in the Red List of threatened or endangered species International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act.
Now we wont discuss about the reasons of the vulnerabilities or the threats they faced that had lead these Owl species to get listed in the Red List. As we all are aware about the brutal things being a human we can exhibit. Hence we would focus on what we can do now to protect these species. This Blog will enlist the steps to follow if we found any animal that belongs to the Red List or to protect these species. It would be advisable to follow these steps to return something to our mother nature.
To Protect Endangered Species
- Native plants provide food and shelter for native wildlife
- Slow down when driving.
- Herbicides and pesticides may keep yards looking nice but they are in fact hazardous pollutants that affect wildlife at many levels.
- Recycle and buy sustainable products.
- Harassing wildlife is cruel and illegal.
- Protect wildlife habitat.
Steps to follow if you find an endangered species
- Contact the local police station and in most of the cases they will be guiding you and ask for your contact number and address. They would reach you within half an hour or else will inform.
- If not possible then check the Government website for wildlife prevention of your region. In our case we referred to the following site: http://westbengalforest.gov.in/
- Get their contact number and inform about the endangered species you found. In our case we informed at – 033 23358580 (Principal Chief Conservator of Forests & HoFF, W.B)
- Wait for them to reach you and hand over them the species.
For any reference you can refer to this site as well.
অব্যক্তের_অন্বেষণ 