India
Controlled wildlife populations have plummeted by 73% in just 50 years, WWF report says; experts point to alarming vulture losses in India | India News – Times of India
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The report, which includes the Zoological Society of London’s Living Planet Index (LPI), finds the steepest declines in freshwater populations (85 percent), followed by terrestrial (69 percent) and marine (56 percent) populations among the 34,836 monitored wildlife populations. 5,495 vertebrate species of amphibians, birds, fish, mammals and reptiles.
The report, released on Thursday, also highlights how the ecological degradation And loss of habitatdriven primarily by the food system, combined with pollution and climate change increases the opportunity to reach locally, regionally and globally turning point — a critical threshold leading to potentially irreversible change.
In the Indian context, an example from Chennai is cited, stating that rapid urban expansion in the city has resulted in an 85 percent decline in wetland areas over the period, making the population vulnerable to both droughts and floods.
“As severe drought hit the region, the city’s main reservoirs went dry in 2019 and groundwater levels plummeted. Without the wetlands to maintain and replenish the water supply, the city of 11.2 million residents remained vulnerable and forced to import water. to meet basic needs such as drinking, cooking and bathing,” the report said.
Referring to a 2022 nationwide survey in India, experts from WWF-India noted that the population of white-billed vultures has declined by 67 percent, the Indian vulture by 48 percent and the slender-billed vulture by a whopping 89 percent compared to other countries. for their population in 2002.
Because vultures provide essential ecosystem services by removing carcasses, recycling nutrients and reducing the transmission of certain diseases, they called for an urgent need to protect these crucial scavengers and maintain ecological balance.
However, citing an example of an increase in the tiger population, they noted that despite declines in many wildlife populations in India, some have stabilized and shown recovery, largely due to proactive government initiatives, effective habitat management and robust scientific interventions.
Explaining the tipping point, WWF-India experts, including Sejal Worah and Dipankar Ghose, also pointed out that more than 36 percent of the country’s forest cover is estimated to be prone to frequent forest fires. 4.48 lakh forest fire warnings between 2021 and 2024.
At a regional level, the fastest declines in ‘monitored wildlife populations’ have been observed in Latin America and the Caribbean (95 percent), followed by Africa (76 percent) and Asia and the Pacific (60 percent). The report noted that declines were less dramatic in Europe and Central Asia (35 percent) and North America (39 percent). This reflects the fact that large-scale impacts on nature were already visible in these regions before 1970.
Noting that more than half of GDP (55 percent) is moderately to highly dependent on nature and its services, the report called for progress toward global goals for reversing climate change. nature loss by 2030 by transforming energy, food and financial systems.
“Nature issues a distress call. The associated crises of nature loss and climate change are pushing wildlife and ecosystems beyond their limits, with dangerous global tipping points that threaten to damage Earth’s life support systems and destabilize societies. The catastrophic consequences of the loss of some of our most valuable ecosystems, such as the Amazon rainforest and coral reefs, would be felt by people and nature around the world,” said Kirsten Schuijt, Director General of WWF International.
