{"id":14344,"date":"2021-03-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-12T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/current_affairs\/uncategorized\/12-03-2021\/whale-shark-conservation-in-india\/"},"modified":"2021-03-12T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-03-12T00:00:00","slug":"whale-shark-conservation-in-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/12-03-2021\/whale-shark-conservation-in-india","title":{"rendered":"Whale Shark Conservation in India"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>In News<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>According to a recent study, the<strong> global population of sharks and rays<\/strong> have <strong>crashed by over 70%<\/strong> in the <strong>past five decades<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>After Indonesia<\/strong>, <strong>India is the second-largest shark fishing nation<\/strong> in the world, according to the <strong>Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute<\/strong>, India.<\/li>\n<li>Despite the protection, <strong>whale shark landings<\/strong> were common on <strong>India\u2019s West coast<\/strong>, especially in <strong>Gujarat<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Whale Shark<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cfstatic.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/file_library\/mix_content\/814565899601663900_image.png\" style=\"height:290px; margin-left:150px; margin-right:150px; width:435px\" \/><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Scientific Name:<\/strong> <em>Rhincodon typus.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong>Characteristics<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The whale shark&#8217;s <strong>flattened head<\/strong> sports a<strong> blunt snout above its mouth <\/strong>with <strong>short barbels protruding from its nostrils<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Its back and sides are <strong>grey to brown with white spots <\/strong>among <strong>pale vertical and horizontal stripes<\/strong>, and its <strong>belly is white<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Its <strong>two dorsal fins<\/strong> are set rearward on its body, which ends in a large dual-lobbed caudal fin (or tail).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Features<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>They are the<strong> largest fish in the sea<\/strong>, reaching <strong>lengths of 40 feet or more<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>They feed on <strong>plankton, tiny animals and small fish<\/strong>. The whale shark is a <strong>filter feeder<\/strong>. In order to eat, they jut out their formidably sized jaws and passively filter everything in their path. The mechanism is theorized to be a technique called \u201c<strong>cross-flow filtration<\/strong>\u201d.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Habitat<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Preferring warm waters, whale sharks <strong>populate all tropical seas<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>They are <strong>known to migrate every spring to the continental shelf <\/strong>of the central west coast of Australia.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Major Threats<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>These are usually <strong>hauled in as bycatch<\/strong> when fishermen <strong>target economically benefiting species<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The meat of whale sharks is not very edible, it is the <strong>liver that is the most important<\/strong> for<strong> commercial trade<\/strong>, while<strong> oil<\/strong> from the fish is used <strong>for water-proofing boats<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>skin is used for leather<\/strong> which is made into boots and bags.<\/li>\n<li>The<strong> fins<\/strong> are <strong>harvested for shark fin soup<\/strong>, a <strong>sought-after delicacy in Southeast Asia <\/strong>and <strong>China<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Global Protection<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>CITES:<\/strong> Appendix II<\/li>\n<li><strong>IUCN Red List Status:<\/strong> Endangered<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Conservation Efforts in India<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In <strong>2001, <\/strong>whale sharks were included in<strong> Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act of India, 1972<\/strong>, rendering the <strong>capture and killing of the fish a cognisable offence<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li>It was the <strong>first-ever species to be protected under this Act<\/strong>, after which the <strong>Ganges shark<\/strong> (<em>Glyphis gangeticus<\/em>) and <strong>SpearTooth shark<\/strong> (<em>Glyphis glyphis<\/em>) were added to it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>Wildlife Trust of India<\/strong> (WTI) launched the <strong>Whale Shark Campaign in 2004<\/strong> to <strong>spread awareness<\/strong> on the plight of the species and its protected status among coastal communities in Gujarat.\n<ul>\n<li>The campaign<strong> helped convert the fishermen into protectors<\/strong> of the fish and brought about a <strong>change in the perception and attitude<\/strong> of local people.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>In <strong>2008<\/strong>, the <strong>WTI<\/strong> launched the <strong>Whale Shark Conservation Project<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li>The project attempts to <strong>generate baseline data on the whale shark<\/strong> to aid its <strong>long-term conservation<\/strong> in India.<\/li>\n<li>It is a<strong> joint venture<\/strong> of the <strong>Gujarat Forest Department<\/strong>, <strong>Tata Chemicals Limited <\/strong>(TCL) and WTI.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Activities<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Scientific studies through photo-identification, genetic analysis and satellite tagging.<\/li>\n<li>Explores the establishment of <strong>whale shark tourism<\/strong> in India, to benefit coastal communities which play a critical role in marine wildlife conservation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Awareness programmes, workshops<\/strong> have been conducted in villages and <strong>street plays<\/strong> are written and enacted to <strong>convey the consequences of hunting<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>WTI also <strong>roped in leaders from local communities<\/strong> to head the campaigns to <strong>be more inclusive <\/strong>in the process.<\/li>\n<li>WTI is also <strong>geo-tagging <\/strong>these fishes to <strong>know their whereabouts<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Exporting shark fins<\/strong> was <strong>banned in India in 2015<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<table border=\"1\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"width:735px\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"vertical-align:top; width:6.5in\">\n<p><strong>Wildlife Trust of India<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It is a<strong> leading Indian nature conservation organisation<\/strong> committed to the service of nature.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Mission:<\/strong> To conserve wildlife and its habitat and to work for the welfare of individual wild animals, in partnership with communities and governments.<\/li>\n<li>WTI works towards achieving its <strong>vision of a secure natural heritage of India<\/strong>, through its <strong>nine key strategies<\/strong> viz, Wild Aid, Wild Rescue, Species Recovery, Protected Area Recovery, Conflict Management, Enforcement and Law, Wild Lands, Natural Heritage Campaigns, Right of Passage.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/energy-and-environment\/what-it-takes-for-the-conservation-of-whale-sharks\/article34044810.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source: TH<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In News According to a recent study, the global population of sharks and rays have crashed by over 70% in the past five decades. After Indonesia, India is the second-largest shark fishing nation in the world, according to the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, India. Despite the protection, whale shark landings were common on India\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-14344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs","tag-gs-3"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2023\/07\/3302519current-affairs.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14344","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=14344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}