Key Takeaways
- State of World’s Birds Report 2022 Edition was released
Findings of Report
- The new review State of the World’s Birds, found that approximately 48 percent of existing bird species worldwide are known or suspected to be undergoing population declines.
- This is in contrast to trends in 39% of species where numbers are stable, and 6% showing increasing population trends, said the study led by Alexander Lees of the Department of Natural Sciences, Manchester Metropolitan University.
- Global bird populations have steadily declined over the last three decades
- This pattern of varying responses by migratory guilds has also been observed in Europe, North America, and India, where climate change is considered to be a major driver of change.
- Key threats:
- Due to anthropogenic activities led to the degradation and loss of natural habitats as well as direct overexploitation of many species
- Climate change is also identified as an emerging driver of bird population declines in the study
- Results of the State of India’s Birds (SoIB) report released by a partnership of 10 Government and non-Governmental organisations in February 2020 directly fed into this global assessment.
- What it found for India ?
- The loss in avian diversity is no less alarming in India, where current annual trends available for the past five years have been estimated for 146 species.
- Of these, nearly 80% are declining in numbers, and almost 50% plummeting strongly.
- The Indian report had found that endemic species, bird of prey, and those dwelling in forests and grasslands were the most threatened
- The paper flagged the threat of hunting and trapping in different parts of the world, including northeast India, It also said that for some species, like the critically endangered Great Indian Bustard power transmission lines represent the most significant threat
Pic Source: freepik
Content Source – Hindustan Express