Get Wild, Get Wet in India

Posted in News | August 30, 2011 | Comment Now

When in India, think wild and you will get to know a mixture of diversely born wildlife. The parks, sanctuaries across the country are home to some of the rarest and most threatened species in the world. The country stands amongst 17 in the world to have 60 to 70% of the biodiversity in the world.

Around 7.6% mammals, 12.6% reptiles are found to inhabit India and the country is home to some of the best kind of plants and animals. India, originally was a part of the Gondwana land and over a period of geographical changes the country is what it is today. So it is not very surprising that most of the Asian mammals are found in India. With around 4.5% birds which are endemic we have the reptilians sharing a good 45.8% and the amphibians 55.8% as endemic. Around 2.9% of the threatened species according to the IUCN is found in India. Some of them are the Bengal Tiger, the Asiatic Lion, notwithstanding the Indian white rumped vulture.

In India, the national parks came into existence in the early thirties and the Wildlife Protection Act along with the Project Tiger was a major breakthrough. Today India is host to around 500 wildlife sanctuaries and 25 wetlands besides having 15 reserves for biosphere. Out of these 15, four come under the World Network of Biosphere Reserves. Jungle is how wildlife is known as in India, and the fabled Jungle Book by the author Rudyard Kipling has India as the locale. Jungle tales in the Indian fables Panchatantra and other tales are also famous.

Of late the news articles in wildlife in India has found people getting arrested over kidnapping turtles ( around 170 turtles ) in the month of August . Again news articles say about the dredging activities are posing a serious threat to the habitats of turtles. In Rajaji Park in India, leopard skins were seized. People with leopard skins have been caught and arrested in Uttar Pradesh in India.

News articles about a village called Ghati in Gadchiroli having villagers keeping the timber away from the forest department showed how the villagers prevented forest officials from touching the timber. But the Act actually covers only minor produces like tendu, gum, tendu, edible fruits and roots from the forests. They also said that they were in charge of protecting the wildlife so the Forest department couldn’t touch it without the permission of the local administration. Thus the village majorly came into news with the villagers not allowing the Forest Department to cut trees but allowed the officials to carry out their other duties.

Another news articles in Kheri in Uttar Pradesh, say about the electrocution of three elephants in an accident when a high tension electric wire of 11,000 volts fell on them. The incident took place in an area near the Dudhwa wildlife sanctuary. The incident is under investigation as some days back farmers had complained that the elephants were damaging their produce.