Fauna of Protected Areas and Dirology: A challenge for Youths

The Wildlife is one of the most gracious gifts of nature to this land, which is as rich in its variety and colours as its number. In order to conserve the existing wildlife of India, the Union and State governments and several Non-government organizations have given useful suggestions and made sincere efforts to declare the natural habitats as protected areas. This article provides information about protected areas and the available scope for the young researchers, environmentalists, budding ornithologists to publish their research work in reputed journals. As member of editorial board of Journal of Biodiversity & Endangered Species, I hope that publication of details on fauna (non-domesticated animals) conserved in protected areas is useful for the future generation of researchers.


Introduction
The Wildlife is one of the most gracious gifts of nature to this land, which is as rich in its variety and colours as its number. In order to conserve the existing wildlife of India, the Union and State governments and several Non-government organizations have given useful suggestions and made sincere efforts to declare the natural habitats as protected areas. This article provides information about protected areas and the available scope for the young researchers, environmentalists, budding ornithologists to publish their research work in reputed journals. As member of editorial board of Journal of Biodiversity & Endangered Species, I hope that publication of details on fauna (non-domesticated animals) conserved in protected areas is useful for the future generation of researchers.
Wildlife can be found in all ecosystems. Wildlife is found in deserts, rain forests, plains, and other areas including the most developed urban sites [1]. Everybody hopes to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature. The need for conservation of wildlife in India is often questioned because of the apparently incorrect priority in the face of direct poverty of the people. However, Article 48 of the Constitution of India specifies that, "The state shall endeavour to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the forests and wildlife of the country" and Article 51-A states that "it shall be the duty of every citizen of India to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers, and wildlife and to have compassion for living creatures." The majestic lion, the grateful yet fearsome tiger, unproductive leopard, powerful elephant, the nimble deer, attractive antelope, the picturesque peafowl, the gorgeous pelican, the beautiful parakeets, wood-pecker and the elegant flamingo are some of these of which any country might be proud.

Indian National Resource
There are 181 species of amphibians, 312 species of mammals, 399 species of reptiles, 1175 species of birds, and 60000 species of insects. Over the years, about 106 species of animals and about 140 species of birds have become extinct because of climate and geographic changes and also by over hunting by man for food, medicine, fur and many other reasons. According to ecologists, more than 600 species of animals and birds are expected to become extinct if not protected.
Human activities pose the biggest threat to wildlife because expanding human population results in expanding needs of man [2]. With scientific progress and technological development, man has started utilizing natural resources at a much larger scale. Continuous increase in population caused an increasing demand for resources. Wildlife is considered a renewable resource and hence its conservation is essential if we desire sustainable yields. Nature has endowed India with such abundant and varied fauna that it compares favorably with that of any country in the world whether it is developed, developing or underdeveloped.
India has large geographical size and variety of climate and habitats. Wild animals constitute great national resources. Preservation and protection of wildlife is important from the ecological point of view. The role of individual species in ecosystem (for example in food chain) cannot be undermined. Today amphibians are under a threat and their population has declined. This is the cause of ecological concern because some habitats and biomass of amphibians can exceed all other large animals combined.

Management plans to conserve wildlife
Wildlife, besides its crucial role in preventing ecological degradation has other values like serving as a genetic pool for livestock improvement. Management plans to conserve wild life are (i) The Indian Board of Wildlife was set up in 1952 to ensure protection and scientific management of the diminishing wildlife in the country (ii) Countrywide uniform legislation in the form of the Wild life (Protection) Act enacted in 1972 with object of ensuring stricter protection to wildlife and its better management (iii) The Forest (Conservation) Act passed in 1980, to impose a severe restriction, on the diversion of forestland to non-forest use. (iv) Establishment of (a) national parks, (b) wildlife sanctuaries, (c) biosphere reserves and (d) specials projects formulated for captive breeding and for rehabilitation of endangered species Wildlife conservation is the practice of protecting endangered plant and animal species and their habitats. Among the goals of wildlife conservation are to ensure that nature will be around for future generations to enjoy and to recognize the importance of wildlife and wilderness lands to humans. Many nations have government agencies dedicated to wildlife conservation, which help to implement policies designed to protect wildlife. The science of extinction is called dirology. An endangered species is defined as a population of a living being that is at the danger of becoming extinct because of several reasons. Either they are few in number or are threatened by the varying environmental parameters.
Flagship species: like tiger , Indian bison or Gaur and Asian Elephant are found in sufficient numbers in India in some protected areas. A study carried out by Dr. Ullas Karanth of the Wildlife Conservation Society has contributed a lot in this field [3][4][5].
like eucalyptus. This has led to the destruction of species that were dependent on the forest. This has adversely affected several species dependent on large tracts of scrub. The classic example is Great Indian Bustard [6].
Mining operations: clear out large areas of land and cause destruction to the species dependent on them. An example is the Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Limited which mined iron ore within the boundaries of the protected Kudremukh National Park [7].
Human-wildlife conflict: Due to the loss of habitat, more and more species of fauna have started to venture into human habitation causing a conflict between humans and fauna. A typical species affected by this is the elephant which ventures out of the forest into human cultivations thereby eating or destroying the crops. In some cases, the elephants have also caused human deaths. In Karnataka state, between April and December 2012, a total of 157 elephants have died and about 18 people were killed in elephant attacks in the state. The figure is the highest ever since 2007-08. Majority of the elephants, about 141, died of natural causes, 3 due to gun shots and 13 of electrocution. The lack of food and water force elephants out of the forest and they end up in villages on the fringes of the forested areas [8].

Pollution
Release of industrial waste and human effluents into rivers have caused significant damages to species that reside in rivers and riverbanks. Air pollution is also a significant cause of concern in metros like Bangalore where it has been found that air pollution is discolouring foliage including those of ornamental plants. Pollution in rivers has caused sharp reduction in populations of animal species [9].

Wildlife management
With reference to wildlife, ecological subdivisions of India include (i) Himalayan mountain system (ii) Peninsular and (iii) Tropical rain forest region. Day by day, list of endangered and threatened animals is on rise. Due to continuous increase in the number of endangered species, steps have been taken to protect and manage the wildlife of the country. Government and Non-Government organizations like Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), Wildlife Preservation Society (Dehradun), World Wildlife Fund, Indian Board of Wildlife etc have contributed a lot and dedicated to wildlife conservation.

In-situ conservation of wildlife
It is on-site conservation of genetic resources in natural populations of plant or animal species. It is the process of protecting an endangered plant or animal species in its natural home by protecting the habitat itself. Main benefit of in-situ conservation is that it maintains recovering populations in the surrounding where they have developed their distinctive properties. Another benefit is that this strategy helps ensure the ongoing processes of evolution and adaptation within their environments. Biodiversity conservation is mostly based on in situ conservation and this involves the protection of wildlife habitats. There are different categories of protected areas which are managed with different objectives for bringing benefits to the society. These include    zones that are open to some economic uses. Protection is granted not only to the flora and fauna of the protected region, but also to the human communities who inhabit these regions.   [10]. The focus is conserving each of these iconic species, the end result of protecting the entire ecosystem will lead to conservation of a number of other endemic and endangered species including the free flowing rivers. It is hoped that these conservation reserves herald a beginning of innovative ways devised by experts to protect our valuable free flowing rivers. Many such rivers all across the country have been nurturing biodiversity and supporting livelihoods and it is high time that civil society groups, scientists and policy makers come together and look for various ways to protect these rivers from the onslaught of dams and pollution, for the current and future generations (Figure 1).

Exclusive areas
As special effort, both the Union and State governments have declared habitats to conserve the exclusive species in particular areas.
A few examples of such declared areas in Karnataka state are (A) Ranebennur Blackbuck sanctuary (119 km²) was declared as wildlife sanctuary in June 1974 to protect Blackbucks (B) Daroji Sloth Bear Sanctuary in Bellary district in Karnataka [11]. The sanctuary was exclusively created for the preservation of Indian Sloth bears in  [12].
(D) Butterfly Park: first of its kind was established in November 2006 [13]. The Butterfly Park is spread across 7.5 acres of land. The butterfly conservatory (a circular enclosure with a poly-carbonate roof of 10,000 sq ft provide the living environment to support more than twenty species of butterflies). The environment has a tropical setting, with a humid climate, an artificial waterfall, and appropriate flora to attract butterflies.

Conclusion
Among the goals of wildlife conservation are to ensure that nature will be around for future generations to enjoy and to recognize the importance of wildlife and wilderness lands to humans. Many nations have government agencies dedicated to wildlife conservation. Numerous independent nonprofit organizations also promote various wildlife conservation causes. Wildlife conservation has become an increasingly important practice due to the negative effects of human activity on wildlife. In spite of all efforts, more forest area is needed for greater interest of protecting wildlife from the adverse effect of climate change. Optimum afforestation could help stop degradation of environment and biodiversity, making the country a safe habitat for all. It is the time to formulate a time-befitting policy, that the present impacts of climate change had adversely affected the region's agriculture, ecology, bio-diversity, weather, environment etc. Hence it is for the youths to take up this challenge to conserve the fauna of protected areas and prevent science of extinction of wildlife i.e dirology.