PRELIMS BOOSTERS – 2018
Black-necked crane (Grus nigricollis) and Traffic
Black-necked crane (Grus nigricollis)
- Vulnerable — IUCN Red List
- state bird of Jammu and Kashmir
- It is reveredin Buddhist traditions and culturally protected across much of its range
- Range
Tibetan Plateau and remote parts of India and Bhutan
- Habitat
Breeds in alpine bog meadows and riverine marshes, favouring lacustrine marshes from 2,600-4,900 m. It prefers to nest at large water bodies
- Threats
- damage to the eggs and chicks, caused by feral dogs
- loss of habitat due to human pressure on the wetlands
- increased grazing pressure on the limited pastures near the wetlands is leading to the degradation of the wetland habitat.
- Conservation
- Schedule I of Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972
- Appendix I of CITES
Traffic
- Founded in 1976 as a strategic alliance of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
- Headquarters — Cambridge, UK
- Type — International non-governmental organization
- Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network
- aim — ‘ensure that trade in wild plants and animals is not a threat to the conservation of nature
- It is governed by the board of trustees of TRAFFIC International
- TRAFFIC’s 2020 goal — help reduce the pressure of illegal and unsustainable wildlife trade on biodiversity, and enhance the benefits to wildlife conservation and human well-being that derive from trade at sustainable levels.