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Contents
What is the News?
The State of India’s Birds(SoIB) report has been released.
What is the State of India’s Birds(SoIB) report?
State of the World’s Birds is an annual review of environmental resources.
Released by: Partnership of 10 Government and non-Governmental organizations.
What are the key findings of the report?
Findings related to the Global level
Approximately 48% of existing bird species worldwide are known or suspected to be undergoing population declines.
This is compared to trends in 39% of species remaining stable, just 6% show increasing population trends and 7% still unknown.
More threatened bird species (86.4%) are found in tropical than in temperate latitudes, with hot spots for threatened species concentrated in the tropical Andes, southeast Brazil, eastern Himalayas, eastern Madagascar, and southeast Asian islands
The trend toward declining bird diversity is just as alarming in India, where recent annual trends have been calculated for 146 species. Of these, nearly 80% are declining in numbers and almost 50% plummeting strongly.
Just over 6% of the species studied show stable populations and 14% show increasing population trends. Among the most threatened species were endemic species, birds of prey and those living in forests and grasslands.
Reasons for Declining Bird Species
Populations of almost half of all bird species are declining globally because of human-influenced factors such as loss or degradation of habitats, changes in land use, overexploitation and climate change.
Recommendations given by the report
– Conducting reliable estimates of population abundance and change.
– Novel and more effective solutions applied at scale for demand reduction for overharvested wild birds.
– Monitoring green energy transitions that can impact birds if inappropriately implemented.
– Eradication of populations of invasive alien species.
– Shifting human societies to economically sustainable development pathways.
Source: The post is based on the article “Future looms dark for 48% of bird species” published in The Hindu on 9th May 2022
