NEWS

The population of the vulnerable eastern swamp deer, extinct elsewhere in South Asia, has dipped in the Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve.

EASTERN SWAMP DEER

• Also called as barasingha
• Distributed in the Indian subcontinent.
• Populations in northern and central India are fragmented, and two isolated populations occur in southwestern Nepal.
• Locally extinct in Pakistan and Bangladesh, and its presence is uncertain in Bhutan.
• In Assamese, barasingha is called dolhorina; dol meaning swamp.
• Conservation status
  • IUCN Red List: Endangered
  • CITES: Appendix I
  • Wildlife Protection Act of 1972: Schedule I

Kaziranga National Park

• Where – Assam.
• Spread across the floodplains of the Brahmaputra River
• Home to tigers, elephants and the world’s largest population of Indian one-horned rhinoceroses.
• Much of the focus of conservation efforts are focused on the ‘big four’ species— rhino, elephant, Royal Bengal tiger and Asiatic water buffalo.
• The 2018 census had yielded 2,413 rhinos and approximately 1,100 elephants.
• The tiger census of 2014 estimated 103 tigers, the third highest population of the striped cat in India
• Home to nine of the 14 species of primates found in the Indian subcontinent.