Project on 'endangered species' yet to take off

NEW DELHI APRIL 11 . An ambitious project taken up by the Zoological Survey of India to find how endangered were the endangered species over a decade ago, remains just that — ambitious.

In 1987, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests had directed the ZSI to conduct a survey to find out the status of 77 species of mammals, 46 of birds, 15 of reptiles, three of amphibians and a large number of invertebrates, which were reported to be endangered.

But, the ZSI has initiated the survey with regard to only 11 species of mammals and even the truncated programme remains incomplete. The survey of just eight mammals has been completed.

Highlighting the tardy progress in a recent report placed before Parliament, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India has noted that the slow pace of progress was mainly because the ZSI has not provided enough manpower for it, though it was to be undertaken on a priority basis through deployment of scientists from the headquarters and the regional stations. The entire work was to be completed by 1995.

Pointing out that the non-completion of status surveys was attributed by the officials of the ZSI to retirement of several scientists and specialists, the CAG has observed that "the reply has to be viewed in the light of the fact that no proper action was taken by the ZSI to fill the posts arising due to retirement''.

Apart from assessing the population status of the various species, the survey was designed to determine their range of movement, habitat and ecological requirements and the different threat factors.

In its report, the CAG has also pulled up the ZSI for being way behind schedule in terms of survey of the various ecosystems in the country for their faunal resources.

Reviewing the progress of the special programme taken by the ZSI again in 1987 on the directions of the Environment and Forests Ministry to conduct the survey initially in 12 areas by 1993 and then in 17 others by 1996, the CAG has found that the survey has so far been completed only in three areas in the first block and five in the second.

The areas that were to be taken up in the first block were: the tropical rain forests in Western Ghats, and the north-eastern States, the Himalayan eco-system in Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh, the desert ecosystems in Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Ladakh and the marine island ecosystems in Lakshadweep and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

The survey has been completed only in respect of Sikkim, Rajasthan, and Lakshadweep.

In the second block, the areas proposed to be taken up were: the biosphere reserves in Nilgiris and Nanda Devi, the wetlands of Asthamudi (Kerala) and Ujni (Maharashtra), the freshwater ecosystems of Osman Sagar (Andhra Pradesh), Dal and Wular (Jammu), Gobind Sangar (Punjab), Loktak (Manipur), estuarine and brackish water ecosystems in the Krishna-Godavari delta in Andhra Pradesh Chilka Lake, Mahanadi delta and Rushikuliya in Orissa, Sunderbans and Hooghly-Matla in West Bengal, and the mangroves of Sunderbans and Andamans. But, so far the ZSI has completed the survey only in Asthamudi, Ujni, Osman Sagar, Hooghly-Matla and Mahanadi delta.