The beautiful sight of a pink headed duck that could have once been seen on the Gangetic plains of India, Bangladesh and Myanmar is matter of past now. There had been a fear of extinction of this species since the 1950s and recently hardly any proof has been found of its continued existence. The unique feature of this species was the pink coloration of its head combined with a dark body. It is a pity we don’t have them anymore. It is a significant loss to our natural resources’ beauty. The reasons of its extinction however ceases to surprise anyone. Habitual destruction obviously being one of them. Beside, this as it was the British colonizers were particularly fond of hunting this bird and then as expected a lot of Indian royals and bureaucrats followed suit. Another of such examples is the Sundra rhinoceros, also popularly known as the Jevan rhinoceros, only one of whose species is known to be alive right now. Bharattherium, Exaeretodan, Gigantopithecus, Hyperodapedon are amongst those species that have already been whipped from the face of earth. And the list of endangered species seems endless. What are we doing to our animals?
I my article I would go ahead and analyze some of the key reasons for such a terrible condition of animals and their declining population in our country. India is a country that is thought to have abundance in wildlife that can be hunted for various reasons. Historically, because of India’s rich and diverse wildlife, a lot of hunters have been attracted to it. The kings and their guest and travelers were particularly notorious for such practices, though even common men were not very far behind them in matters of hunting. Amongst the most stupid reasons for hunting, the ones that really surpassed others were hunting for fun and hunting for cultural and religious reasons. Of course! So much for being the smartest beings on earth. Unfortunately, as with time we saw an advancement in weaponry there was also rise in hunting. In fact, the introduction of gun power during British raj saw a great fall in the tiger population, from around forty thousand it reduced to around eighteen hundred. Finally, later hunting in India was banned but of course after doing the desired harm to our wildlife. However, even after banning poaching, we have not quite managed to eradicate this problem from our country. Illegal hunting in India continues to take place shamelessly. This is primarily a result of ignorance on the part of the government. The government has been incapable in carrying out the law properly and this is becoming increasingly difficult day by day due to the exponential development in technology and hunting methods. The worst victims of this practice has unquestionably been the Indian tigers. However, there are a lot of other animal species which remain to be the favorite amongst the hunters, some of them being the Asian elephant, Water buffalo, Rhino, Gaur (the largest bovine worldwide), Lion, Tigers, The Leopards, and the black, brown and sloth bears. We can’t really expect much change in this problem unless the government takes sincere and imperative actions to curb this illegal hunting.
The second major reason observed for vanishing animal species is habitual destruction. Massive deforestation of course remains to be one of the major reasons for it. As we moved towards modernity, one of the biggest prices we paid for it is the unfortunate reduction in our forest areas. We needed land for various purposes, for expanding our agricultural area, for building industries, for urbanization, for building highways and dams. As a result of all this, though our lives improved, that of these animals deteriorated. Due to destruction of their habitat, either they had to adapt to changes, move to newer areas or ultimately die because of diseases or poaching. We also need to note that not only deliberate destruction but our other actions too lead to altering their habitat. Things like pollution affect the natural habitat of these animals tremendously. Water pollution is particularly harmful to these organisms living in coastal areas and in rivers. Things like toxic waste, insecticide and pesticides have devastating effects on their food change and ultimately lead to death of a majority of population of these water species. Beside this, there are other human activities also that affect the sustenance of animal species. Collection of animals for purposes like putting them in zoos, private collection and research also leads to the premature death of a number of animals. Especially research works that involves killing of animals for such purposes. Other actions like pest control too have a major impact on our food chains and ecology. Predators or pests too are important biotic components of the ecosystem. We need to take great care while dealing with these components.
Concluding, I would say that these animal and bird species add a special beauty and importance to our natural resources. The extinction of various species is an unfortunate event not only because we are witnessing a loss in our wildlife but because later all this might just come back to us. We by doing harm to them are indirectly harming ourselves. We are disturbing the balance of nature and by doing so we will also not remain entirely unaffected. Beside, just think about it, what heritage are we leaving for our future generation? Aren’t we doing injustice to them by leaving only pictures of such beautiful animals for them to see? It is time we start taking this problem seriously and start respecting all that we have received from our mother nature. It is time we start valuing our animals.
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