Status of Leopards in India (GS Paper 3, Environment)
Why in news?
- Recently, the Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, released the report on Status of Leopards in India.
Stakeholders:
- The fifth cycle leopard population estimation was carried out by the National Tiger Conservation Authority and Wildlife Institute of India, in collaboration with State Forest Departments, as part of the quadrennial “Monitoring of Tiger, Co-predators, prey and their habitat” exercise in tiger range States.
Key Findings:
- India's leopard population is estimated at 13,874 (Range: 12,616 – 15,132) individuals, representing stable population in comparison to the similar area being sampled in 2018 with 12852 (12,172-13,535) individuals.
- This estimate represent population of 70% of leopard habitat, the Himalayas and semi arid parts of country which are not tiger habitat were not sampled.
- Central India shows a stable or slightly growing population of leopards (2018: 8071, 2022: 8820), Shivalik hills and Gangetic plains experienced decline (2018: 1253, 2022: 1109). If looked at the area which was sampled both in 2018 and 2022 across India, there is a 1.08% per annum growth.
- In Shivalik hills and Gangetic plains, there is a -3.4% decline per annum, while the largest growth rate was in Central India and Eastern Ghats of 1.5%.
- Madhya Pradesh houses the largest population of leopards in the country – 3907 (2018: 3421), followed by Maharashtra (2022: 1985; 2018: 1,690), Karnataka (2022: 1,879 ; 2018: 1,783) and Tamil Nadu (2022: 1,070; 2018: 868).
- Tiger Reserves or sites with highest leopard population are, Nagarajunasagar Srisailam (Andhra Pradesh), followed by Panna (Madhya Pradesh), and Satpura (Madhya Pradesh).
Database:
- The fifth cycle of leopard population estimation (2022) in India focused on forested habitats within 18 tiger states, covering four major tiger conservation landscapes. Non-forested habitats, arid, and high Himalayas above 2000 msl (~ 30% area) were not sampled for leopard.
- This cycle conducted a foot survey spanning 6,41,449 km to estimate carnivore signs and prey abundance. Camera traps were strategically placed at 32,803 locations, resulting in a total of 4,70,81,881 photographs, resulting in 85,488 photo-captures of leopard.
Conservation gaps:
- The findings underscore the critical role of Protected Areas in conserving leopard populations. While tiger reserves serve as important strongholds, addressing conservation gaps outside protected areas is equally vital.
- Rising incidents of conflict pose challenges for both leopards and communities.
- Since leopards survival outside protected areas is equally important, collaborative efforts involving government agencies, conservation organizations, and local communities are essential to enhance habitat protection and mitigate human-wildlife conflict.
GDP growth estimate for current year raised to 7.6 percent
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Why in news?
- The National Statistical Office (NSO) recently raised India’s real GDP growth estimate for 2024 to 7.6% from the 7.3% projected in January 2024. It also scaled down its 7.2% growth estimate for 2022-23 to 7% and raised its 2021-22 estimate from 9.1% to 9.7%.
Details:
- The Gross Value Added (GVA) in the economy is projected to rise 6.9% in 2024, with the NSO downgrading last year’s GVA growth to 6.7% from 7%. GDP growth for the first two quarters of this year was raised to 8.2% and 8.1%, further rising to 8.4% for the October to December 2023 quarter (Q3).
- Economists expressed surprise that GVA growth in Q3 slid to just 6.5% from revised estimates of 8.2% and 7.7% in Q1 and Q2, respectively. Concerns also persisted about private consumption, which grew 3.5% in Q3 from 2.4% in Q2.
- The full-year growth estimate was downgraded to 3% from the 4.4% reckoned in early January.
Sector-wise growth:
- Farm sector GVA growth slipped into a 0.8% contraction in Q3, and the full year is now expected to record a mere 0.7% rise, compared with 4.7% in 2022-23.
- Acceleration in GVA growth from three key sectors has helped: construction, up 10.7%; manufacturing, which is up 8.5% from a 2.2% dip in 2022-23; and mining, up 8.1% versus 1.9% last year.
- GVA growth in the employment-intensive trade, hotels, transport, communications, and broadcasting services sectors is expected to almost halve to 6.5% in 2023-24 from 12% in 2022-23.
Background:
- The latest forecast comes after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) revised its growth forecast to 7% for the current fiscal year, from an earlier estimate of 6.5%, on the back of robust growth in the first two quarters of the ongoing fiscal.
- Nominal GDP is expected to grow at 9.1% in the current fiscal, slower than the 10.5% growth rate projected in the FY25 budget.
- The statistics ministry also revised the June and September quarter GDP growth rate to 8.2% and 8.1%, from the previous estimates of 7.8% and 7.6% respectively.
ZSI names a newly discovered sea slug after President Murmu
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Why in news?
- The Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) has named a new marine species of head-shield sea slug with ruby red spot which was discovered from West Bengal and Odisha coast after President of India Droupadi Murmu.
Details:
- This species belonging to Melanochlamys genus was discovered from Digha of West Bengal coast and Udaipur of Odisha coast.
- The new species of head-shield sea slug, which is found nowhere else in the world, has been named Melanochlamys droupadi.
Characteristic features:
- Species of the genus Melanochlamys are characterised morphologically by a short, blunt and cylindrical body and a smooth dorsal surface with two dorsal equal or unequal shields, named the anterior cephalic and posterior shield.
- It is a small invertebrate with a maximum length up to 7 mm, brownish black in colour with a ruby red spot in the hind end, shell inside the body, hermaphrodite, normally crawling on the intertidal zone, which left the crawl mark behind them in the sandy beaches.
- Their reproduction apparently occurs between November and January.
- Melanochlamys droupadi animals continuously secrete transparent mucus to form a sheath that prevents sand grains from entering parapodial space.
- It crawls beneath smooth sand to form a moving capsule where the body is rarely visible.
Habitat:
- The species of this group are generally distributed in temperate regions of the Indo-Pacific Oceanic realm but three species are truly tropical distributed, Melanochlamys papillata from the Gulf of Thailand, Melanochlamys bengalensis from West Bengal and Odisha coast and the present species.
