{"id":14136,"date":"2021-02-27T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-27T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/current_affairs\/uncategorized\/27-02-2021\/caracal\/"},"modified":"2021-02-27T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-02-27T00:00:00","slug":"caracal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/27-02-2021\/caracal","title":{"rendered":"Caracal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>In News<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Recently, the <strong>National Board for Wildlife <\/strong>and the <strong>Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change<\/strong> have included the <strong>caracal <\/strong>in the <strong>list of critically endangered species<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>About Caracal<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cfstatic.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/file_library\/mix_content\/624058341226624000_image.png\" style=\"height:225px; margin-left:100px; margin-right:100px; width:338px\" \/><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>They are <strong>slender, medium-sized wild cats.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The iconic ears give the animal its name <strong>caracal,\u00a0 which comes from the Turkish word \u2018<em>karakulak<\/em>\u2019<\/strong>, meaning <strong>black ears<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>In India, it is <strong>called <em>Siya gosh<\/em>, <\/strong>a<strong> Persian name that translates as \u2018black ears\u2019. <\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>A Sanskrit fable exists about a <strong>small wild cat named <em>deergha-karn<\/em> or \u2018long-eared\u2019.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>It is characterised by a <strong>robust build, long legs, a short face, long tufted ears, and long canine teeth. <\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The caracal is an <strong>elusive<\/strong>, <strong>primarily nocturnal <\/strong>animal.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Habitat <\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The caracal is found in several dozen countries across <strong>Africa<\/strong>, the <strong>Middle East<\/strong>, <strong>Central and South Asi<\/strong>a.<\/li>\n<li>In <strong>India<\/strong>, the presence of these cats has been reported from only three states which are <strong>Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Major Threats<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Infrastructure projects<\/strong> such as the building of roads lead to the <strong>fragmentation of the caracal\u2019s ecology<\/strong> and <strong>disruption of its movement<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The<strong> loss of habitat also affects the animal\u2019s prey<\/strong> which includes <strong>small ungulates and rodents.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>In recent years, cases have been detected of the animal <strong>being captured to be sold as exotic pets.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Conservation Status<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>\u00a0The<strong> International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)<\/strong> lists <strong>caracals<\/strong> as a species of<strong> \u2018least concern\u2019 in its Red List.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>However, in India, these are<strong> <\/strong>listed as<strong> critically endangered species.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Significance of Current Listing<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The listing of the caracal as <strong>critically endangered <\/strong>is expected to<strong> bring central funding to conservation efforts<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<table border=\"1\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"width:735px\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"vertical-align:top; width:468.0pt\">\n<p><strong>Historical Context &#8211;<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The earliest evidence of the<strong> caracal in the subcontinent comes<\/strong> from a <strong>fossil dating back to the civilisation of the Indus Valley c. 3000-2000 BC<\/strong>, according to a reference in \u2018<strong>Historical and current extent of occurrence of the Caracal in India\u2019.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The c<strong>aracal has traditionally been valued<\/strong> for its <strong>litheness and extraordinary ability<\/strong> to catch <strong>birds in flight; it was a favourite coursing or hunting animal in medieval India.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Firuz Shah Tughlaq (1351-88) had siyah-goshdar khana,<\/strong> stables that housed large <strong>numbers of coursing caracal.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>\u00a0It is mentioned in <strong>Abul Fazl\u2019s Akbarnama, <\/strong>as a<strong> hunting animal in the time of Akbar (1556-1605).<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>\u00a0Descriptions and illustrations of the caracal can be found in medieval texts such as the <strong>Anvar-i-Suhayli, Tutinama, Khamsa-e-Nizami, and Shahnameh.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The East India Company\u2019s Robert Clive is said to have been presented with a caracal after <strong>he defeated Siraj-ud-daullah in the Battle of Plassey (1757)<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-the-caracal-a-favourite-of-royals-now-critically-endangered-7206724\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source: IE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 In News Recently, the National Board for Wildlife and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change have included the caracal in the list of critically endangered species. About Caracal They are slender, medium-sized wild cats. The iconic ears give the animal its name caracal,\u00a0 which comes from the Turkish word \u2018karakulak\u2019, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14137,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2023\/07\/1517299current-affairs (1).jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}