Every Country in the world has some unique specialities. It depends on the geographic location, climatic conditions and the terrain. These are the factors that define the physical properties of a country and the race of people living there. Cold Siberian winters and Huskies are a speciality of the Russian Federation whereas untouched waterfalls and elephants are a speciality of African nations. Every part of the world has different races and species of animals. India is one such country that is entirely different from several countries and the diversity of species here is unparalleled.
India has a diverse range of wild animals that are found only in the subcontinent region. More than 104 national parks and 553 wildlife sanctuaries help India boast about the rich wildlife that it possesses. Eight per cent of the world’s species find shelter in India’s forests ranging from tropical forests to wetlands and deserts. Despite constant decline in the numbers of several rare species, India has done well in fighting the depleting count of species while bolstering its move to preserve some of the most important animals including the Royal Bengal Tiger. In this blog, we’re going to look at 8 such species that you can only spot in India.
1. Asiatic Lion: Lions are regarded as the King of the jungle. They look royal from their appearance and are real beasts. Asiatic Lion is a special Lion species that can only be found in India. Asiatic Lions are found in the Gir National Park in Gujarat. They were also found in Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal but excessive hunting led to the depletion of their population. There are 674 Asiatic Lions in the Gir at present. The government has done well in providing them with a safe abode and also plans to relocate some of them to Madhya Pradesh to eliminate the chances of Animal-Human conflict.
2. Bengal Tiger: The Royal Bengal Tiger is probably the most popular wild animal from India. India accounts for 70 per cent of the world’s tiger population and has more than 3,000 tigers roaming freely in 50 tiger reserves. It is the national animal of India and people from all across the world come to visit the Royal animal. A few of them can also be found in Nepal, China and Bhutan. Tigers were hunted excessively in Indian until the government started Project Tiger in 1973. Killing them now is a criminal offence.
3. Lion-tailed Macaque: The Western Ghats are home to one of India’s most green areas where nature flourishes and wild animals live without any external interference. The Lion-tailed Macaque are found in the rainforests of the Western Ghats in India. There are only 3,000 to 4,000 left Lion-tailed Macaques left in the world. They live on trees and feed on plants and leaves. Silent Valley National Park in Kerala, the Anamalai Tiger Reserve in Tamil Nadu, and the Sharavathi Wildlife Sanctuary in Karnataka are some of the places where you can easily spot them.
4. Great Indian Bustard: With the Western nations having a lot of unique species of birds, the Great Indian Bustard is the only species that has kept India in the race. One of the heaviest flying birds, the Great Indian Bustards are shy in nature. But that has not protected them from getting hunted and poached. Once found all across India as well as Pakistan, the Great Indian Bustard’s population has come down to 150. While hunting them is banned in India, it is still prevalent in Pakistan. The local authorities in Rajasthan work with the local people and they have been successful in starting a captive breeding program to increase their numbers.
5. Ganges River Dolphin: Found in freshwater rivers in India, the Ganges River Dolphin is an endangered species. Once found in abundance in Brahmaputra and Ganga, the beautiful creatures decline in numbers due to continuous pollution of water and decrease of freshwater flow. There are over 3,750 dolphins in India, Nepal and Bangladesh combined with the majority of them in India. To spot them, you can opt for a dolphin safari with trained volunteers in the river in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal.
6. Barasingha: As the name suggests, Barasingha is a twelve-horned swamp deer where ‘Bara’ (read as Barah) stands for Twelve. Mainly found in Kanha National Park in Madhya Pradesh, the unique deers were revived due to the constant efforts by the government after almost going into extinction. At present, there are more than 800 Barasinghas in Madhya Pradesh. They have gone extinct in Bangladesh and Pakistan. A few of them are also found in Nepal.
7. Kashmir Hangul: Found only in Dachigam National Park, The Kashmir Hangul is a subspecies of the European deer. The state animal of Jammu and Kashmir has giant antlers. The population of the unique deers was somewhere in between 3,000-5,000 and they could easily be spotted in Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh. At present, there are just 150 of them. They are often at the risk of getting hunted by dogs. Reviving their population is a challenge that the Indian government faces.
8. Indian Rhino: The gigantic structure of these beasts has been of no help in preventing them from the greedy eyes of poachers who hunt them for their single horn. The Indian Rhino or the one-horned rhino were once found in large numbers in India, Pakistan, Nepal and Myanmar. At present, there are just 3,700 of them with most of them finding shelter in the Kaziranga National Park in Assam. Their population came down to 200 in the 20th century and they were listed as an endangered species. But, continuous efforts from both the governments and locals have helped in increasing their population. The good thing is that they have become the only large mammal in Asia to change the status and get down-listed from endangered to vulnerable.
