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of India (WTI), Worldwide Fund for Nature–India (WWF–India) among others, which
evaluates the overall conservation status of the most regularly occurring bird species in

India.
In the report, a total of 942 species of Indian birds were accessed for conservation priority

by the experts and bird watchers among which 217 species were found to be stable or
increasing in the last eight years. Also, 204 bird species have shown decline in the past
three decades.

“Out of total 942, 178 species have been classified as High Conservation Priority which
includes Northern Shoveler, Northern Pintail, Common Teal, Tufted Duck, Greater
Flamingo, Sarus Crane, Indian Courser and Andaman Serpent Eagle, the report said.

It further pointed out that out of 178 high conservation priority list, 94 were classified

in this category based on both abundance trends and range, 45 based on range being
Very Restricted, and an additional 39 based on a combination of their range and IUCN
Red List status. Also, 14 species, including Indian Roller, recommended for IUCN Red
List reassessment.

The abundance trend refers to change over 30 years while the current annual trend refers
to change in over the past seven years.

Newspaper report

Fifteen years after polar bears were listed as threatened, a new study says researchers
have overcome a roadblock in the Endangered Species Act that prevented the federal

government from considering climate change when evaluating
impacts of projects such as oil and gas drilling.
What you Think?ou Think?
The act requires agencies to ensure projects they approve, What y
don’t further harm listed species. But a 2008 Department of What is global
Interior legal opinion said greenhouse gas emissions didn’t warming ?
have to be considered because the impact from specific
projects couldn’t be distinguished from that of all historic

global emissions.
A study published Thursday in Science’s Policy Forum says scientists for the first time

are able to directly quantify the impact of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions from
specific sources on polar bear cub survival.

It “just seems odd” that polar bears were listed because of the loss of sea ice due to
global warming “but emissions have not been considered,” said lead author Steven C.
Amstrup, chief scientist emeritus at Polar Bears International and a professor at the
University of Wyoming.

Polar bears, which occur in 19 subpopulations throughout the Arctic, rely on sea ice to

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