No Protection Plans For 'Near Threatened' Pala Pitta: Centre
Yadav said poaching, and habitat loss were the biggest problems being faced by the Indian roller, and that these issues were being looked at
HYDERABAD: The Centre has said that there were no specific plans for the protection of the Indian roller, the ‘pala pitta’ of Telangana where it is the State Bird. According to Union environment, forests and climate change minister Bhupender Yadav, the Indian Rroller was a protected species under Schedule II of the Wildlife Protection Act which prohibited its hunting.
The minister’s response came in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday to a question from Dr K. Laxman of the BJP who sought a direction from the Centre to the states concerned to prepare a species-specific action plan for conservation of the ‘pala pitta’.
Yadav said poaching, and habitat loss were the biggest problems being faced by the Indian roller, and that these issues were being looked at.
In October, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) noted the threats facing the ‘pala pitta’ by upgrading the risk from the status of ‘Least Concern’ to ‘Near Threatened’.
Dr Laxman said there was a strong emotional attachment to the ‘pala pitta’ as a harbinger of good fortune but its numbers had fallen by 30 per cent across its range in the country. The ‘pala pitta’, he said, is a species of great cultural significance in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, particularly during the Dasara festival.
