Guj to draw up action plan on wildlife conservation with IUCN.

Press Trust of India / Ahmedabad January 28, 2013, 11:45
The Gujarat government will draw up an action plan on wildlife conservation in association with International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
"In the first week of February, we shall be drawing the outline of future action programme on conservation with IUCN," Principal Chief Conservator of Forests C N Pandey said.
The state government recently signed an MoU with IUCN with a view to leverage knowledge-sharing with species-specific groups within the international body and to conduct research.
Asiatic Lions are the stars of Gujarat wildlife. But the partnership between the state and IUCN would go beyond it, and take into consideration all the endangered local species such as turtles and dugong (a rare marine mammal), Pandey said. It will develop strategies for conservation. "We are organising a workshop in February with IUCN on raptor (prey birds) conservation," Pandey said.
Gujarat has a noticeable population of prey birds species such as harriers, falcons, eagles, kites in the Velavadar Blackbuck National Park area, Bhavnagar.
The harrier roost at Velavadar is amongst the largest in the world, experts say. Harriers belong to the hawk family.
"We would benefit from IUCN tie-up in terms of international research too, which is important for conservation, as a large number of species happen to be globe- rangers," Pandey said.