State of India’s Birds 2020 Report

WHY IN NEWS?

India’s bird population suffers long-term decline, according to the report “State of India’s Birds 2020”.

ABOUT STATE OF INDIA'S BIRDS 2020 REPORT

• The State of India’s Birds report was created to assess the conservation status of the majority of species that regularly occur in the country.
• It is the culmination of a collaboration between ten research and conservation organisations within the country, spanning both governmental and non-governmental institutions:
  • Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE),
  • Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS),
  • Foundation for Ecological Security (FES),
  • National Biodiversity Authority (NBA),
  • National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS-TIFR),
  • Nature Conservation Foundation (NCF),
  • Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON),
  • Wetlands International South Asia (WI-SA),
  • Wildlife Institute of India (WII), and
  • World Wide Fund for Nature India (WWF-India)
• Worldwide, common and widespread species are declining; but in India, lack of information has meant that conservation attention has been focused on only a few species (usually large, charismatic and threatened).
• The report fills this gap by using over 10 million observations uploaded to the eBird platform by more than 15,500 birdwatchers to evaluate the distribution range size of 867 Indian birds, and their trends in abundance in both the long term (over 25+ years) and currently (past 5 years).
• Using these three measures, plus information from the IUCN Red List of global threat status, this report places Indian species into Low, Moderate and High categories of Conservation Concern for India.
• A large number of species that are thought to be common and widespread find themselves as of High Conservation Concern.

Prelims Question

Q. With reference to the “State of India’s Birds 2020” Report, which of the following statements is/are correct?
1. It was created to assess the conservation status of highly threatened species of birds in the country
2. It is a result of collaboration of 10 research and conservation organizations within the country
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
a. 1 only
b. 2 only
c. Both 1 and 2
d. Neither 1 nor 2

Answer to the Prelims Question