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Six endangered species to be conserved by NWB
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editor on 24 February, 2008 02:37:00
 
Kolkata(PTI): Six endangered species -- the snow leopard, Kashmiri stag(
hangul), wild buffalo, Gangetic dolphin and two birds (Great Indian bustard and
Jerdons courser) -- would be conserved for the first time, a member of National
Board for Wildlife (NBW) said.
"We need to have long-term programmes to save these endangered animals and
birds. Special care would be taken for their conservation under a special
programme, member of NBW and Director of Wildlife Institute of India P R Sinha
said.
With the tiger population declining, these species too were becoming scarce and
need to be conserved, he said.
Snow leopards found abundantly in the Himalayan foothills of Uttarakhand,
Ladakh, Bhutan were threatened, while hangul or the red deer, was the only
surviving member here of the red deer family of Europe.
The same was with wild buffaloes which were once abundant in Assam and
Chhattisgarh were now becoming rare.
The Gangetic dolphin was the lone aquatic creature to be selected for the first
time for conservation by the NBW.   Found mostly in the Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna
river basin, their number was declining rapidly due to loss of habitat, polluted
rivers, silting and excessive fishing.