Sarus Crane
Why in news :
- Recently a man from the state of Uttar Pradesh has been booked under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 for keeping the bird in captivity.
- The officials said that the avian species falls under the vulnerable category and cannot be “kept in captivity”.
About Sarus Crane :
- The sarus crane (Antigone antigone) is a large nonmigratory crane found in parts of the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and Australia.
- The sarus crane is easily distinguished from other cranes in the region by its overall grey colour and the contrasting red head and upper neck.
- They forage on marshes and shallow wetlands for roots, tubers, insects, crustaceans, and small vertebrate prey.
- In India, they are considered symbols of marital fidelity, believed to mate for life and pine the loss of their mates, even to the point of starving to death.
- The main breeding season is during the rainy season, when the pair builds an enormous nest “island,” a circular platform of reeds and grasses nearly two meters in diameter and high enough to stay above the shallow water surrounding it.
- Increased agricultural intensity is often thought to have led to declines in sarus crane numbers, but they also benefit from wetland crops and the construction of canals and reservoirs.
- The stronghold of the species is in India, where it is traditionally revered and lives in agricultural lands in close proximity to humans.
Distribution and Habitat :
- The species has historically been widely distributed on the lowlands of India along the Gangetic plains, extending south to the Godavari River, west to coastal Gujarat, the Tharparkar District of Pakistan, and east to West Bengal and Assam.
- The species no longer breeds in Pubjab, though it winters regularly in the state.
- Sarus cranes are rare in West Bengal and Assam, and are no longer found in the state of Bihar.
- In Nepal, its distribution is restricted to the western and central lowland plains, with most of the population occurring in Rupandehi, Kapilvastu, and Nawalparasi districts.
- Two distinct populations of sarus cranes occur in Southeast Asia : the northern population in China and Myanmar, and the southern population in Cambodia and Vietnam.
Conservation status :
- IUCN status : Vulnerable
Conservation Issues :
- The main threat to the Sarus crane in India is habitat loss and degradation due to draining the wetland and conversion of land for agriculture.
- The landscape of its historic range is rapidly changing due to construction of highways, housing colonies, roads, and railway lines.
- More recently, many deaths have been recorded due to collision with power lines.
- Also, due to the increase in agricultural land, Sarus cranes are left with no choice but to forage in these fields, and as a result ingest pesticides, which lead to poisoning.
Syllabus : Prelims; Environment
