Source: DTE
Subject: Environment
Context: The Global Action Plan (GAP) for the Steppe Eagle (2026–2035) was officially adopted during CMS COP15, which concluded, in Campo Grande, Brazil.
About Global Action Plan for the Steppe Eagle:
What It Is?
- The Steppe Eagle Global Action Plan is a science-based international conservation framework designed to provide a coordinated strategy for the survival of the Endangered steppe eagle (Aquila nipalensis).
- It serves as a roadmap for range states to mitigate anthropogenic threats and stabilize the species’ population.
Aim: The central vision is to halt and reverse the decline of the steppe eagle by delivering innovative, science-based conservation actions and community engagement across its entire migratory range.
Key Features (6 Strategic Goals)
The plan is built around 49 specific actions categorized under six primary goals:
- Energy Infrastructure: Reducing mortality caused by electrocution and collisions with powerlines and wind farms.
- Take and Trade: Significantly reducing both legal and illegal killing, trapping, and trade (including online markets).
- Poisoning Prevention: Understanding and mitigating the impact of unintentional poisoning from pesticides, NSAIDs (like Diclofenac), and heavy metals.
- Habitat Restoration: Attaining and maintaining high-quality habitats and stable prey populations across the breeding and wintering grounds.
- Knowledge Gap Closure: Increasing international research collaboration to better understand movement patterns and spatial hotspots.
- Effective Implementation: Ensuring all range states endorse the plan through outreach, stakeholder engagement, and community involvement.
About Steppe Eagle:
What It Is?
- The Steppe Eagle is a large, migratory bird of prey belonging to the family Accipitridae. It is a quintessential raptor of the open plains and is known for its impressive transcontinental migrations, often traveling thousands of kilometers between its breeding and wintering grounds.
IUCN Status: Endangered
Habitat:
- Global: It breeds in the vast, open steppes, semi-deserts, and montane grasslands of the Palearctic region, stretching from Romania and Russia through Kazakhstan to Mongolia and China.
- India: It is frequently spotted in open habitats such as grasslands, semi-arid regions, agricultural fields, and even garbage dumps in states like Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Haryana.
- The Thar Desert has emerged as a critical lifeline for these raptors, with the Jorbeer Conservation Reserve and Desert National Park now included in the Global Action Plan (2026–2035).
Characters:
- Plumage: Adults are dark brown with a pale golden nape; juveniles show a broad white band under the wings.
- Size: Large, heavy eagle with a wingspan of 7–2.1 m and a long gape extending beyond the eye.
- Feeding: Hunts small mammals but also scavenges at carcasses and landfills.
- Migration: A soaring migrant that uses thermal currents; an important species of the Central Asian Flyway (CAF).
