Conservation of Wild Life

Due to continuous and constant exploitation by man, many of the animal species have either become extinct or are at the verge extinction.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural resources (IUCN) have printed out five main conservation categories of wild animal and plants:

Extinct species:

• A species is considered extinct when there is no reasonable doubt that its last individual has died, e.g., mountain quail, pink headed duck, one horned rhino and cheetah.

Endangered species:

• Species which are in danger of extinction and whose survival is unlikely if the causal factors continue to operate. e.g., Brow antlered deer, hispid hare, Indian rhinoceros, Great Indian bustard, musk deer, blue whale etc.

Vulnerable species:

• Such a species contains sufficient number of individuals in its habitat but in the near future, may becme an endangered species if unfavourable conditions persist. e.g., crab eating macaque, golden langur, chinkaro deer etc.

Rare species:

• Species that are not presently endangered or vulnerable but are at risk e.g., Indian egg eating snake, Indian pied hornbill and golden cat.

Insufficiently known species:

• The species about which there is not enough information.

Red Data Book

It is a sort of publication, which is published by IUCN, which provides information regarding threatened species of plants and animals.

Indian Green Book

Botanical survey of India publishes this book. This book provides information about plant species which are rare, endangered or endemic, but all of which are grown in botanical gardens.

Important measures for the conservation of Indian wild life

In Situ Conservation

It is nothing but conservation of living resources within the natural ecosystem in which they occur. This is acheived by protection of natural habitat and maintenance of endangered species in certain protected areas such as national parks, wild life or bird sanctuaries and biosphere reserves. In India, there are about 73 national parks, 416 sanctuaries and 12 biosphere reserves.

National parks

Area which is dedicated for conservation of the environment, natural objects and the wildlife therein. Other forestry operations are prohibited but it is open to visitors who should not disturb or harm the protected plants or animals.

Sanctuaries

They are meant to protect and conserve particular species of wildlife. They are not bound by state legislation. Killing, hunting or capturing of any animal species is prohibited. Forestry and other activities such as grazing of domestic animals are permitted as long as these activites do not adversely affect the wild life.

Examples:

• Kaziranga sanctuary (Assam) is for the protection of rhinoceros, elephants, bison, tigers etc.

• Chilka lake is a bird sanctuary (Orissa)

• Periyar sanctuary (Kerala)

• Madumalai sanctuary (T.N)

• Bandipur sanctuary (Karnataka) is famous for elephants, deers etc.

• Gir forests (Gujarat) is famous for Asiatic lions

Ex-situ Conservation

It is the conservation of wild life outside their habitat. This is achieved by perpetuation of sample population in genetic resource centres, zoos, botanical gardens, culture collection (tissue culture) or germ-plasma banks.

Zoos:

• Zoos or zoological gardens are places where wild animals are kept. The zoos are open to public. The specimens normally found in zoos are rare, exotic, local, and popular ones. Some specimens are also bred in captivity in zoos.

Botanical gardens:

• In botanical gardens rare, endemic and threatened species of plants are conserved. Plants occurring in different ecological conditions are grown in the botanical gardens. Botanical garden of Ooty and botanical garden of Calcutta are some examples.