Nature and Science

Populations in India

India is one of the few places in the world to spot the Swamp deer or barasingha in the wild Our country hosts three subspecies of the barasingha - the eastern, wetland and hard-ground barasingha They are found in three geographically distinct regions - while the eastern barasingha roams the Brahmaputra plain the wetland species spans the Indo-Gangetic plain, and the hand ground barasingha is found in central India. Among the most important places to spot them are the Kanha Tiger Reserve (hard-ground) in Maulija Pradesh and the Kaziranga National Park (eastern) in Assam in 2005, a population of over 300 wetland swamp deer was re-discovered at Jhilmil heel Conservation Reserve in Uttarakhand.

Threats

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), it is likely that barasingha always had a patchy distribution, reflecting the available suitable habitat and so always had faced the threat of local extinction. But what has added to this problem is the conversion of its habitat to agricultural land. This has forced them into small and isolated fragments. When animals are grouped and isolated thus it increases the chance of disease transmission in-breeding and localised extinction. Another form of threat is hunting - they are killed for their meat and hide. It cannot be stressed enough how invasive species, loss of food and extreme weather events too threaten an already vulnerable species.

There's good news!

While the IUCN has listed that the population of barnsingha has generally been seeing a decline, there's some good news on this front from Madhya Pradesh. The number of hand ground swamp deer (Recensis duvauceli) found in Kanha has increased. According to reports in 2020, the number stands at 500 (it was nearly 450 in 2015), This is highly encouraging considering the species was close to extinction only a few decades ago. The increasing population said to be the is result of successful breeding programmes and conservation practices at Kanha. The methods included habitat improvement and captive breeding.

Barasingha facts

• Swamp deer or barasingha has been classified vunerable by the IUCN.
• The animals were spread from Pakistan and India to Nepal and Bangladesh in the 20th Century. Unfortunately, today they are found only in India and Nepal, and have gone extinct in Pakistan and Bangladesh. IUCN states that its presence is uncertain in Bhutan.
• While the hard-ground barasingha occupy sal forests and are grazers, the other two subspecies are adapted to swampy areas and feed also on aquatic plants.
• The three subspecies shed their antlers at different times during a year - the wetland species by mid-January, the hard-ground by late April, and the eastern by early October.
• Barasingha is the State animal of Madhya Pradesh. In 2017, Kanha became the first tiger reserve in India to officially introduce mascot (named Bhoorsingh), which was a barasingha.

Picture Credit : Google

The coast of Odisha welcomes female olive ridleys in several thousands every year. It is said that the female returns to nest in the same place it was born in. Among the most important mass nesting sites in Odisha are the mouth of the Rushikulya river and the Devi river, and Gahirmatha Turtle Sanctuary. During arribada - mass nesting - female turtles arrive from the ocean to the beaches and lay an average of 100 eggs each, taking the final tally to a few lakh eggs. Though not as mass nesting sites, coastal regions of States such as Maharashtra, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala too host olive ridley turtles for sporadic nesting,

An unusual phenomenon

The breeding season of the olive ridley turtle is between November and May, In Rushikulya, mass nesting normally happens between February and March. However, the year 2020 turned out to be slightly unusual for two reasons - one, the nesting began only in the third week of March (delayed due to torrential rains in the region), and two day- nesting was witnessed. Olive ridley turtles usually lay their eggs only at night. Officials say that the last time day nesting happened was in 2013. Since the period coincided with the national lockdown imposed due to COVID-19, one does wonder if the day-nesting occurred due to human absence. However, experts deny there's any connection between the lockdown and the day nesting. In fact, it is said that mass nesting is influenced by factors such as tidal conditions, wind direction and lunar phase rather than human presence. That human absence did not in any way influence the turtles' nesting behaviour becomes more credible by the fact that while the 2020 season saw the arrival of more than 3.00,000 olive ridleys, in 2019. the turtles completely skipped Rushikulya, and the year before that they actually nested twice (in February and April)! But what the lockdown did do was to help authorities allow more personnel to improve care for turtles rather than towards monitoring humans who visited the beaches.

Threats

Despite only one in a thousand reaching adulthood, the olive ridley turtle is the most abundant in the world. However, it has been listed "Vulnerable" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and its numbers are said to be declining. Accidental injury and death caused when trapped in fishing nets has been of great concern. Though Turtle Excluder Devices have helped control this to a certain extent such injuries and deaths continue. Though measures are in place to protect them, the turtles are killed for meat and their eggs are consumed. When unprotected, eggs and newborns are consumed by birds and stray animals on the beach. Among the greatest threats to the eggs is sea erosion. There have been instances of even a few lakh eggs being lost to high tide. Sea erosion destroys certain sandy stretches that the turtles use for mass nesting. When the stretches disappear, the turtles lay their eggs on sand bars formed by erosion. These sand bars - and along with them, the eggs - are washed away by high tide.

Olive ridley facts

• Olive ridley turtles get their name from the greenish colour of their skin and shell.
• They are the most abundant turtles in the world.
• They are found in warmer waters of the Southern Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans.
• They weigh up to 50 kg and are about two feet long.
• These turtles feed mostly on jellyfish, shrimp, snails, crabs, and fish and their eggs. They occasionally eat algae and seaweed as well.
• However, only one hatchling in a thousand makes it to adulthood.
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Picture Credit : Google

So far as natural habitats o, Manas is unusual - it is a wildlife sanctuary national park biosphere hotspot a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a Project Tiger and Project Elephant reserve. Located in Assam. Manas Wildlife Sanctuary is spread across 390 sq.km. The sanctuary is contiguous with the Royal Manas National Park of neighbouring country Bhutan. Located on Himalayan foothills, the sanctuary is fed both by monsoon rains and the Manas River it spans. The fertile Manas region is marked by riverine tracts rigged mountains, forested hills, tropical evergreen forests, mixed moist and dry deciduous forests and alluvial grasslands it nurtures about 60 mammal species over 40 reptile species and 500 species of birds. These include many globally threatened species too.

The danger tag

Pride of Assam, the Manas Wild Sanctuary became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1985. But that joy was to be short lived in only seven years (1992), the sanctuary was places in the “danger” list by UNESCO due to several reasons budding poaching, general infrastructure degradation and the ethnic strife that dominated the region. And that tag was not easy to shake. It took several years of concerted effort from local activists and the government to in prove the conditions in the sanctuary Thong did take a while, the efforts eventually did pay off - in 2011, the region was struck off the danger let. Sadly a study in 2018 showed that Manas was one of the over 100 UNESCO World Heritage sites severely damaged by human activity The study also showed it had the most intense increase in human pressure.

Wildlife

Apart from the tiger and the Asian elephant the sanctuary hosts the greater one-horned rhino, swamp deer, pygmy hog, hispid hare, golden langur, clouded leopard, Assam roofed turtle, sloth bear and wild water buffalo. The bird species found here include pochards, francolins, nightjar, coucals, crakes, thickknees, plovers, jacanas, sandpipers, buttonquails, kites, buzzards, eagles, vultures, harriers, hornbills, woodpeckers, barbet, bee-eaters, kestrels, falconets, falcons, parakeets, pipits, buntings, tits, martins, starlings, garganey, mallards, common teals, little grebes, Bengal floricans and greater Adjutants. In addition Manas displays high plant diversity with at least 80 tree species 45 shrubs 35 under 170 herbs and 35 climbers. Among these, the many varieties of orchids ferns and grasses make for vital forage for the hooved mammals roaming the region

Threat

After poaching one of the main areas of concerns about the region has been invasive species. This is not an animal but two plant varieties from South America According to a 2019 study conducted by four researchers. the impact of the plant species Chromolaena odorata and Mikania micrantha - cannot be ignore The study says they are found in the Terai grasslands of the region and have been growing and expanding at an alarming rate over the years of these species continue to grow at the current rate the study said that over 15 of the total Manas area and 30 of the areca nuts are likely to come under the invasion This would mean significant reduction in the habitats of animals such as the Asiatic wild buffalo, one horned rhino, swamp deer and hog deer, and the eventual decline in their population.

Picture Credit : Google