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Young World
Triple Jeopardy
MADHAV GADGIL
Lesser Florican-
Of the Bustard clan,
Is barely hanging on
As best as it can!
Day by day, our world is losing many of its feathered jewels. Indeed, fully ten per cent of India's bird species are today threatened with extinction. Included amongst them is the handsome Lesser Florican, a member of the Bustard family. Bustard means a bird that walks, and these birds of the open country prefer to use their long legs over their wings. They are birds of a good size, the Lesser Florican exceeding half a metre in height. They were once abundant in the grasslands over much of the Indian sub-continent, and early British chronicles record their being hunted in large numbers for the table. While the British hunters are long gone, the species is now being threatened by the rapid loss of its grassland habitat for cultivation. Being a large sized bird means that they require extensive habitat patches and occur in relatively low densities. Their size, the excellent taste of their flesh, and their preference for grasslands thus places them in triple jeopardy, rendering them one of our highly endangered species.
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