Down To Earth brings you the top happenings in the world of global ecology
A taxidermied Pink-Headed Duck. Photo: Wikimedia Commons Four animal species have gone extinct in India in the past few centuries: govt
Four animals have gone extinct in India in the past few centuries. They include mammals such as the cheetah and the Sumatran rhinoceros. Birds such as the pink-headed duck went extinct in 1950 and the Himalayan quail was last reported in 1876.
This is according to data tabled earlier in July in the Lok Sabha by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, according to a media report.
The ministry also told the Lok Sabha in its reply that 18 species of plants — four non-flowering and 14 flowering — have become extinct in India. These include a fern in Manipur and a palm species discovered in Myanmar and the Bengal region among others.
Sloth bears cause scare in Maharashtra and Telangana villages
Sloth bears have caused tension in Maharashtra and Telangana villages in two separate incidents.
A video has emerged of people in a Girda village of Maharashtra’s Buldhana district heckling a sloth bear that had strayed there.
Fortunately, the animal was able to go back into the forest unscathed, according to a media report.
In Telangana, a sloth bear attacked and seriously injured a man in Dharmaram village in Nizamabad district and was ultimately tranquilised by a team from Hyderabad’s Nehru Zoological Park, according to another report.
Leopard kills man in Udaipur
A leopard attacked and dragged a man sleeping in the balcony of his house in a village in Udaipur district last week, according to a media report.
The man, identified as 40-year-old Devi Lal Meena, was asleep in the balcony of his house on the night of July 23, when the leopard attacked him and dragged the body away.
On being informed by villagers who had noticed blood stains, the police located the body which was handed over to the man’s family after a post-mortem.
However, that was not before villagers blocked the Udaipur-Ahmedabad National Highway. They lifted the blockade only after being pacified by the forest department and police.
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