Indian Gaur | UPSC
HEADLINES:
Pregnant Gaur killed in Kerala; 6 held
WHY IN NEWS:
Police in the area conducted a raid on the night of August 18, 2020 after getting a tip-off about a wild animal being poached. They found that six men in the Puncha forest region had killed a female gaur near Poopathiripara.
SYLLABUS COVERED: GS 3:Conservation of Biodiversity : Flora and Fauna
LEARNING:
For PRELIMS go through the facts and note down distribution , IUCN status and threats .
ISSUE:
INDIAN GAUR
- The gaur is a wild bovid that is native to the forests of South and Southeast Asia.
- It is biggest among wild cattle.
- Recently, the first population estimation exercise of the Indian Gaur (Bison) was carried out in the Nilgiris Forest Division, Tamil Nadu.
- Conservation and breeding of Gaur was started at Mysuru zoo under the conservation breeding programme of the Central Zoo Authority (CZA).
DISTRIBUTION
- Indian Gaur is native to South and Southeast Asia.
CONSERVATION STATUS
Gaurs are also included in the Schedule I of the Wild Life Protection Act, 1972.
THREATS
- ANTHROPOGENIC FACTORS : Due to the destruction in the grasslands, planting of commercially important trees, invasive plant species and indiscriminate grazing of domestic animals
- INVASIVE SPECIES : Invasive plant species and indiscriminate grazing of domestic animals.
- MEAT : For their commercial value as well as due to the high demand of gaur meat.
- DEFORESTATION : Due to deforestation and commercial plantations.
MAN ANIMAL CONFLICTS
- Due to living in proximity with human habitations.
- Due to their habitat loss and fragmentation, exacerbating the probability of having problematic interactions with humans.
- Due to easy availability of food and lack of threat from predators, gaurs prefer to inhabit tea estates and human settlements.
- The spread of invasive species of plants in reserve forest have further degraded the Gaur’s natural habitat.
IASbhai WINDUP:
- Gaur are quite safe even when we are on a trek and on foot, if we keep our distances from them and make sure we are facing them, with the wind blowing from them towards and past us.
- They can turn nasty when the distance is breached or we surprise them by suddenly walking into their resting or breeding places.
SOURCES:DOWNTOEARTH | Indian Gaur | UPSC
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