Why in news?
A group of conservationists studying and camera-trapping leopards in the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary has stumbled upon an Indian grey wolf (Canis lumpus pallipes).
Why is it significant?
- This is reckoned to be its first-ever documentation of Indian grey wolf in Chamarajanagar district.
- What is significant is that this indicates the presence of all four large canid species found in southern India (dhole, Indian wolf, jackal, and Bengal fox) in Chamarajanagar.
- In Karnataka, the wolf is found in isolated pockets in the drier areas.
Indian Grey Wolf
- The Indian wolf (Canis lupus pallipes) is a subspecies of grey wolf that ranges from Southwest Asia to the Indian Subcontinent.
- It lacks a luxuriant winter coat due to it living in warmer conditions.
- The Indian wolf travels in smaller packs and is less vocal than other variants of the grey wolf.
- Indian wolves are nocturnal and hunt from dusk to dawn.
- The Indian Wolf is an ENDANGERED SPECIES in Schedule I of Indian wildlife according to the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972.
- It is also in Appendix 1 of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
- A highly endangered and threatened Indian grey wolf species mostly survives on grasslands, scrub forests, and rarely in dry deciduous forests.
- Though the species is distributed widely, it is threatened largely because of habitat loss and retaliatory killing.
- Conflict with humans for livestock depredation, depletion of prey species (like blackbuck, hare) due to livestock, exaggerated public fear regarding their danger, and fragmented habitats that are too small for populations with long-term viability are threatening their survival today.
- Indian wolf numbers are suspected to be lower than that of tigers.
Read More about Wildlife Protection Act at: https://www.legacyias.com/wildlife-protection-act-1972-for-upsc-exam/
-Source: The Hindu
