Punjabi University professor to be part of IUCN study group

Ravneet Singh

Tribune News Service

Patiala, September 5

Ant specialist and head of the Zoology Department at Punjabi University here Dr Himender Bharti has been nominated as a member of a specialist group approved by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

President of the International Network for Study of Ants (ANeT), Dr Bharti will work on conservation of ant species of the Asian region, along with seven other leading scientists from across the globe.

Bharti, who has completed 11 major research projects sanctioned by the Ministry of Science and Technology, has till date discovered 100 new species of ants, including two potential red-list species. Ninety per cent of these species are endemic to the Indian region.

It is for the first time that an ant specialist group has been established by the IUCN, which is the world’s most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of vertebrates and invertebrates, said Bharti.

“We will work on enlisting existing species of ants, their distribution, prioritising disturbed areas, threatened and invasive species. We will also formulate an action plan for the conservation of the ecosystems,” he said.

“My focus will be on Asian ants,” Bharti added.

Till now, ants had been under-represented on the red list, he said. But now they have been recognised for their significance in the global ecosystems.

“We need to explore the bio-diversity and create an action plan to conserve healthy ecosystems as many species are threatened and going extinct due to invasive species and human intervention,” said Bharti.

The invasive species are highly adaptive and modify the ecosystem they invade, resulting in ecological imbalance, he informed.

Till now, over 15,000 ant species have been reported world over and scientists expect over 20,000 more. Of the total, about 900 are from the Indian region, which Dr Bharti says is under-explored.

“We published a comprehensive checklist of 828 species from India in 2017,” he said.

“Human intervention in the environment is also taking place at a fast pace. Coupled with climate change, if it continues at the same scale, it is possible that many species might go extinct before being discovered,” he said.

Apart from Bharti, scientists from the USA, Australia, South Africa, Brazil and the United Kingdom will be a part of the study that will span around 7-10 years.