Biodiversity under threat due to urbanisation: Expert

Tribune News Service

Haridwar, March 14

Prominent Indian birdscientist Dr. Malvika Uniyal from Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, addressed the participating delegates on the seventh day of the SERB workshop on avian biology at Gurukul Kangri University here today.

In her presentation she highlighted the conversion of natural habitats to agricultural land and intensification of agricultural land in the wake of global population explosion as one of the major threats to biodiversity worldwide.

Malvika added that apart from this, rapid industrialisation and urbanisation are also responsible for threat to biodiversity worldwide.

She also cited data figures that at global level there has been sharp 12% increase in the global area of cropland and 10% increase in pasture land from 1960-2000, “which doesn’t bode well for the bio diversity”. Farming is regarded as a major threat (37pc) to the species of birds in danger, for which a specific policy needs to be formulated by the government, she added.

Elaborating further Malvika stated that the species which prefer unconverted habitat and can persist in farmland at low density are most adversely affected due to impact on bio diversity, such as sarus, partridges and swamp francolin.

Citing an example of the sparrow hawks (Accipiter nisus) found in Britain, Malvika defined how their egg shell was getting thinner, showing breakage,leading to the reduced production of young ones.

She also suggested on the two different contrasting approaches -‘land sharing’ and ‘land sparing’- that could address the issue of increased agricultural production with the conservation of biodiversity.