CARNIVORES DOMINATE the food web. Yet, they are among the most threatened mammals in the world. This is the reason, substantial research and conservation resources are invested towards studying, protecting and managing carnivore populations, globally. However, this does not seem to be the case in India, despite the country being strategically important for carnivore conservation and management.
Estimates show that India is home to 23 per cent of the world’s carnivore population, belonging to 60 species. A review of 1,792 studies published since 1947 shows that the impact of the 70 years of research on the charismatic species on their conservation status and policies in the country have been far from satisfactory. The review, done by a team of 15 researchers from 12 Indian institutions, has further found that the wild cat family, particularly the tiger, dominates carnivore literature in the country. The Indian leopard, golden jackal, dhole and jungle cat are the other top carnivores that have received a substantial research focus. But the quality of studies on smaller and less charismatic carnivores has generally been poor, says the paper, published in peer-reviewed international journal Biological Conservation in 2022.
This story is from the March 16, 2023 edition of Down To Earth.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the March 16, 2023 edition of Down To Earth.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
The Pill That's Roiling US Drug Regulation
The hard right is challenging FDA's authority to regulate drugs with its lawsuit to ban America's most used abortion pill
TURN OVER A NEW LEAF
The young leaves of pilkhan free are a worthy alternative to leafy vegetables in the spring season
FAIR PRICE
Using a calculator, Uttar Pradesh scientifically fixes fee for transporting faecal sludge to treatment plants
THE FOREVER POLLUTANT
From production to usage to disposal, plastic is a threat to those who come in its contact SIDDHARTH GHANSHYAM SINGH
Seeds from the past
For a decade,200 villages in Odisha have conserved and grown 190 indigenous rice and millet varieties with proven climate resilience
TESTING TIMES
While the world is trying to identify uniform tests to measure soil biodiversity, it still needs investment and infrastructure to make them available to all
BREAKING NEW GROUND
Soil health is typically measured by its nutrient content, by presence of elements like nitrogen and phosphorus. No country in the world measures it in terms of soil biodiversity-a counting of underground faunal populations and microorganisms.
PRIME TRIGGER
Heat stress dominates debate on the causes of a mysterious chronic kidney disease that continues to baffle health experts and is on the rise globally
Coral catastrophe
Consistent ocean heating puts global corals at risk of mass bleaching in 2024
CHIPKO A DISTANT MEMORY
Whenever a dictionary of green terms is written, no matter in what language, it will contain at least one Hindi word-Chipko, which means to hug.