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PRELIMS BOOSTER 2018 : Forest Owlet (Heteroglaux blewitti) and South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation (SASEC)
- May 1, 2018
- Posted by: InsightsIAS
- Category: PRELIMS BOOSTERS 2018
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PRELIMS BOOSTER 2018
Forest Owlet (Heteroglaux blewitti) and South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation (SASEC)
Forest Owlet (Heteroglaux blewitti)
- Critically endangered –IUCN
- It had been lost for more than a century. It has an interesting history. When not sighted for decades, posters were printed and Salim Ali, the premier ornithologist of India made a public appeal to look for the bird. After 113 long years, the owlet was rediscovered in 1997 and reappeared on the list of Indian birds
- Habitat
- Dry deciduous forest
- Range : endemic to the forests of central India
- South Madhya Pradesh, in north-west Maharashtra and north-central Maharashtra
- Threats
- Logging operations, burning and cutting of trees for firewood and timber damage roosting and nesting trees of the Forest Owlet
- encroachment for cultivation, grazing (reduce habitat suitability) and settlements
- threats from development projects such as the widening of state/national highways (Kanha-Pench Corridor), minor irrigation dams
- suffers predation from a number of native raptors, limiting productivity, and it faces competition for a limited number of nesting cavities
- hunted by local people and body parts and eggs are used for local customs, such as the making of drums
- Pesticides and rodenticides are used to an unknown degree within its range and may pose an additional threat
- severe drought conditions which as well its direct effects on forest may also lead to increased anthropogenic pressures on the habitat
- Conservation — CITES Appendix I
South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation (SASEC)
- Subregional program, set up in 2001
- Headquarter : Manila, Philippines
- Members : Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, and Sri Lanka
- Objective : promote regional prosperity by improving cross-border connectivity, boosting trade among member countries, and strengthening regional economic cooperation
- SASEC priority areas of cooperation
- transport
- trade facilitation
- energy
- economic corridor development (ECD
- In 2016, the SASEC countries approved the SASEC Operational Plan 2016-2025, a 10-year strategic roadmap.
- SASEC Secretariat — ADB serves as the SASEC Secretariat