ENDANGERED SPECIES

 

 

Endangered Species

The endangered species (EN) is a population of organisms threatened with extinction because it is very small or threatened by changes in environmental or predation parameters. It could also mean that due to deforestation there may be a lack of food and / or water. Consequently, it is considered to face a very high risk of extinction in the wild.

A species becomes extinct when the last extant member of that species dies. Consequently, extinction becomes a certainty when there is no surviving individual who can reproduce and create a new generation.

A species can be functionally extinct when only a handful of individuals survive, which cannot reproduce due to health problems, age, dispersed distribution over a wide range, lack of individuals of both sexes or for other reasons.

Reasons for the extinction of species

• The main reasons for the extinction are of natural or human origin. Thanks to evolution, new species emerge through the process of speciation and the species disappear when they can no longer survive in changing conditions or against greater competition.
• A typical species dies within 10 million years of its first appearance, although some species, called living fossils, survive virtually unchanged for hundreds of millions of years.
• However, extinction is generally a natural phenomenon; It is estimated that 99.9% of all species that have lived have now disappeared.
• Several anthropogenic activities that causes extinction are artificial reasons. It is only recently that scientists have been alarmed by the high rates of recent extinctions due to various anthropogenic activities.

 

IUCN Red List

• The IUCN Red List of Endangered Species founded in 1964, is the world’s most comprehensive inventory of the state conservation of biological species. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is the world’s leading authority on the conservation status of species.
• Over 77,300 species have been assessed on the IUCN Red List.
• According to the latest information on the IUCN Red List 2019:
• 41% of amphibians are threatened
• 33% of coral reefs are in the threat category.

 

IUCN objectives

The International Union for Conservation of Nature works to achieve the following objectives:

• Provide scientific data on the state of species and subspecies in the world.
• Address the factors of concern and spread awareness of species and the extinction of biodiversity.
• Plan a design for biodiversity conservation.

 

Wildlife Protection Act 1972

• The law provides for the protection of wild animals, birds and plants and related matters, in order to guarantee the ecological and environmental security of India.
• It prohibits the use of animal traps, except in certain circumstances.
• Protects the hunting rights of the tribes listed in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands
• It contains provisions for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)
• It has six appendices that offer different degrees of protection.
• The species listed in Appendix I and in Part II of Appendix II benefit from absolute protection: the crimes covered by these penalties are punished with the most severe penalties
• Species included in Appendices III and IV are also protected, but the penalties are much lower.
• Annex V includes animals that can be hunted.
• The plants in Annex VI are prohibited from cultivation and planting.

 

Several types of protected areas can be notified in law, namely:

• Sanctuaries: The state or central government may, by notification, declare its intention to establish an area as a sanctuary to protect wildlife and the environment. The government determines the nature and extent of the rights of people in or on the sanctuary lands.
• National parks: The state or central government can declare an area, whether inside a sanctuary or not, as a national park for the purpose of protecting and developing wildlife and its environment. The state government cannot change the boundaries of a national park unless recommended by the National Wildlife Board. Grazing is not allowed inside a national park.
• Conservation reserves: The state government, after consulting the local communities, can declare any area belonging to the government, in particular the areas adjacent to national parks or sanctuaries, as conservation reserves. The government establishes a conservation reserve management committee to manage and conserve the conservation reserve.
• Community reserves: The state government may, in consultation with the community or a person who has volunteered to conserve wildlife, declare any private or community land as a community reserve. The state government will establish a community reserve management committee to conserve and manage the reserve.
• Reserve of tigers: These zones were reserved for the protection of tigers in the country. The state government, on the recommendation of the Tiger Conservation Authority, can notify an area as a tiger reserve, for which it must prepare a tiger conservation plan.

 

The factors responsible for the extinction of the flora and fauna in the world are the following:

Over-exploitation of species

• Either for human consumption, use, development of by-products or for sport. Poaching has been a great threat that continues endlessly.

Habitat loss

• Habitat destruction: people who directly destroy habitat include filling wetlands, dredging rivers, cutting fields and cutting down trees. Commercial activities such as mining and quarrying have destroyed many ecologically sensitive areas. Example: iron ore extraction in the Western Ghats of India.
• Habitat fragmentation: much of the remaining terrestrial terrestrial habitat has been cut into fragments by roads and development. The habitats of aquatic species have been fragmented by dams and water diversions. These habitat fragments may not be large enough or connected enough to support species that need a large territory where they can find companions and food.

Climate change

• As climate change changes temperature and climate patterns, it also affects the lives of plants and animals. Scientists expect the amount and range of species, which define biodiversity, to decrease dramatically as
  temperatures continue to rise.
• The combustion of fossil fuels for energy and animal agriculture are two of the main contributors to global warming, along with deforestation.
• The spread of non-native species around the world: a single species (us) occupying a significant percentage of the physical space and production of the world; and the human actions that increasingly direct evolution.

 

 

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