As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Sunday, 1 July 2018

After Great Indian Bustard, Lesser Florican too faces threat of extinction



Vijay Pinjarkar| TNN | Updated: Jun 25, 2018, 12:46 IST

NAGPUR: Like Great Indian Bustards (GIBs), the Lesser Florican, an endangered agro-grassland bird, is on the verge of extinction in Maharashtra. An estimation by Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, did not record a single bird in 2017 in Akola, Washim and Yavatmal districts where the bird is found. It is the smallest bird of the bustard family.

The three districts were part of a national status survey designed by the Endangered Species Recovery Program of WII and was jointly implemented with the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), Corbett Foundation, and the state forest departments across four states.

Lesser Florican is one of the four bustard species of India, all of which are threatened as per IUCN, and is endemic to this country. Though lesser florican has been given the highest degree of protection under Schedule-I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972, its numbers have declined, necessitating its declaration as an endangered species in the IUCN Red list.

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