Need policy for Lesser Florican and ecosystem

NEWDELHI: The beautiful, jumping bird, the Lesser Florican might go extinct, with an 80% decline in numbers since 2000. There are just 264 birds left, as this paper has also previously reported, quoting a Wildlife Institute of India study. Recently, there wasn’t a single male Great Indian Bustard left in Gujarat and it’s getting harder to protect even in Rajasthan.

Here’s something to think about: both the birds need grasslands, an important ecosystem increasingly being finished. The ecosystem value of grasslands is poorly understood by policy makers. Unlike wetlands, the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MOEFCC) doesn’t put the same focus on grasslands. As India urbanizes, several eco-systems, including grasslands, disappear as they are build-over mindlessly. Sometimes, they cease to be community commons and lose community guardianship as they become privately-owned. Grasslands are further imperiled as traditional livestock and grazing patterns are destroyed. With these changes, the birds lose their habitat and their numbers collapse.

Species and ecosystem must be protected. In this case, it’s also germane to fighting poverty. A NITI Aayog report points out “protection, development and sustainable use of grasslands are very important for the rural economy and livestock. India has more than 500 million livestock, more than 50 % of the fodder for this livestock comes from grasslands.” Not only does India need, as the NITI Aayog suggests, a National Grazing Policy and protection by the MOEFCC, but multiple ministries, like the Urban Development and Railways must be part of a process that is able to treat valuable ecosystems as inviolate. There is no way around nurturing ecosystems.