Now, WII officials working on endangered species

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, May 17

The Wildlife Institute of India (WII), for the first time in its three-decade-old history, has participated in the Endangered Species Recovery Project. Director General, Forests, SS Negi had launched the project at the institute on Monday last.

The WII, as part of the project, has proposed a long-term scientific population recovery and conservation initiative for Great Indian bustard, Gangetic dolphin, Sangai deer and dugong. The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has agreed to fund it. The project envisions close collaboration of Wildlife Institute of India with all the concerned eleven States, where these four endangered species are found.

Negi, while launching the project, had said the WII has vast expertise in field of research and training and it now needs to expand its mandate and take up initiatives such as the Endangered Species Recovery Project. There were nearly 24 threatened faunal species in the country and out of which Great Indian bustard, Gangetic dolphin, Sangai deer and dugong were endangered. WII Director Vinod Mathur said the Central government had provided Rs 100 crore for the five-year project, which would work towards ensuring recovery of endangered species such as Great Indian bustard, Gangetic dolphin, Sangai deer and dugong.

Besides WII scientists, representatives from state forest departments of Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Andaman and Nicobar and experts from national institutes such as the Forest Research Institute, Zoological Survey of India, Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute and the National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management took part in the deliberations that stressed conserving these four endangered species.

Significantly, among the four species initially taken up for conservation, Great Indian bustard is a critically endangered species as around 200 birds were left in the country. It is a flagship species of grasslands and mostly threatened due to hunting and habitat loss. It needs an integrated conservation approach. It is found in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra.

Similarly, dugong, popularly called as sea cow, is a critically endangered species with less than 250 individuals left along the India coast. Gangetic dolphin is also an endangered species the population of which had decline by over 50 per cent. Gangetic dolphin is a flagship species of riverine ecosystems and it is found in some pockets of the Ganga and Brahmaputra river systems in the country.