Yogesh Kumar Goyal
In the name of development, if deforestation continues and animals and birds are taken away from their habitats, then these species will disappear one by one from the earth and in future the whole human race will face the horrific problems and dangers it will create. He has to do the same.
Large-scale exploitation of natural resources, urbanization, industrialization, hunting and deforestation are causing major changes on the earth. Due to the polluted environment and the changing mood of nature, the existence of many species of flora and fauna has been endangered. Many species are rapidly becoming extinct. Flora and fauna provide a better and necessary ecosystem on the earth. Since wildlife is also our friend, it is very important to protect them.
So far, it has come to the fore from the research that the ecosystem of the earth has become very bad. Due to the avoidance of human intervention and the role of local tribal people, only three percent of the area has remained ecologically safe. According to the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Britain, only 2.7 percent of the world’s biodiversity remains unaffected, which is exactly the same as it was 500 years ago. The species of plants and animals that were found in these areas centuries ago are still present today. The remaining unaffected biodiversity area, that too, out of the countries whose borders come, only eleven percent of the area has been declared as a protected area.
Most of the areas with unaffected biodiversity are in the Northern Hemisphere, where human presence has been low, but were not as rich in biodiversity as in other regions. Regarding the crisis looming on the existence of biodiversity on the earth, researchers say that most species have become extinct due to human hunting, while some other reasons include attacks of other animals and diseases. However, based on satellite images, researchers believe that 20 percent of the Earth’s biodiversity can be saved where only five or fewer large animals have disappeared. But for this, the settlement of some species in areas untouched by human influence will have to be increased, so that imbalance in the ecosystem is not created.
Biodiversity is also at risk due to increasing heat due to climate change. Researchers at the University of Arizona in the US believe that one out of every three species of flora and fauna will become extinct in the next fifty years. Researchers, after studying more than 500 species in 600 places around the world for a decade, found that forty-four percent of the species have become extinct in most places. In this study, after studying various seasonal factors, the researchers came to the conclusion that by 2070, if the heat continues like this, many species will be extinct around the world.
According to the World Wildlife Crime Report 2020, wildlife smuggling has also emerged as a major threat to the world’s ecosystem. According to the report, the most trafficked is of mammals. In wildlife smuggling, twenty-two percent of trafficking cases are of reptiles and ten percent of birds. While the share of smuggling of trees and plants is 14.3 percent.
According to the 2021 report of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), thousands of species of wildlife and flora are in danger around the world and the number and rate of their extinction may increase in the coming times. The IUCN, after assessing about one lakh thirty five thousand species, has included thirty seven thousand four hundred of these species in the list of danger, considering them to be on the verge of extinction. About nine hundred biological species have become extinct and more than thirty seven thousand species are facing the threat of extinction. If the crisis on biodiversity continues like this, then it will not take hundreds of years for the extinction of the animal world from the earth.
Known as the world’s heaviest bird, the elephant bird has ceased to exist. Similarly, the species of hairy rhinoceros found in Asia and Europe has also become a part of the pages of history. After the extinction of the dodo bird found in island countries, now the existence of certain species of plants is also under threat.
Wild African elephants living in the heavy rain forests of western and central Africa, black rhinoceros living in the African forests, leopards found in the forests of eastern Russia, tigers found on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia are also now extinct. facing danger. Recently, in a report titled ‘State of World Birds’, it has come to the fore that about forty nine percent of the species of birds in the world are permanent and only six percent of the species are such, whose numbers are increasing, while forty-eight percent of the species number. has registered a decline.
If we look at the decline in the number of bird species in the context of India, where there has been an increase in the number of fourteen percent species in India, only six percent of the species are stable, while eighty percent of the species have decreased. Of these, there has been a significant decline in the population of fifty percent of the species and a small decline in thirty percent of the species.
The annual bird count is now declining in the number and diversity of birds every year, largely due to climate change and deforestation. The results of research on birds in the Himalayan region of Uttarakhand are also shocking. There, the number of birds has decreased by sixty to eighty percent due to human intervention in forest areas, deforestation and rapidly increasing pollution. Researchers from the Dehradun-based Center for Ecology, Development and Research (Cedar) and Hyderabad-based Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) have been conducting this joint research in the Himalayan highlands since 2016.
However, environmental scientists say that the way biodiversity is being threatened all over the world due to encroachment in forests, deforestation, increasing pollution and unnecessary activities in the name of tourism, it is a clear sign of deteriorating environmental balance. If concrete steps are not taken to improve it soon, then in the coming time it will have to bear the brunt of it in the form of big losses.
In the name of development, if deforestation continues and animals and birds are taken away from their habitats, then these species will disappear one by one from the earth and in future the whole human race will face the horrific problems and dangers it will create. He has to do the same. Scientists believe that the degradation of biodiversity will have a direct impact on agriculture and food production in the future. Therefore, to maintain biodiversity on earth, it is most important that we do not let the environmental balance deteriorate.