Lesser florican                                               Â
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Context: Longest in-country migration route of lesser florican from Rajasthan tracked.
About lesser florican (Sypheotides indicus):
- It is one of three bustard species endemic to India, the others being the Bengal florican and the Great Indian Bustard.
- Less than 270 lesser floricans are estimated to be alive in the wild.
- In the local language, the bird is known as ‘tanmor’ on ‘kharmor’, derived from the root word ‘mor’ for peacock
- The bird is listed as “critically endangered” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species and its population has been identified as “decreasing”.
- It also features in Appendix 2 of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) which “includes species not necessarily threatened with extinction, but in which trade must be controlled in order to avoid utilization incompatible with their survival.”
- It is also protected under Schedule 1 of the Indian Wildlife Act.
- The endangered bird is observed in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and some other regions during the monsoon season, when it breeds and later disappears with its chicks to unknown places.
What are the issues with their conservations?
- Forests in India are better protected, but grasslands are not even seen as having any ecological value.
- Their habitat has been under threat in Maharashtra mainly due to the expansion of industries in grassland areas.
- In Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, renewable energy projects have been established on their grasslands, which is where these birds mate.
What is needed?
- There is needs to be a wide-ranging policy to arrest the sort of land-use change which is destroying the lesser floricans’ habitat.
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