Green.view | Staying the courser | Economist.com

Indian conservationists strive to convince politicians of a small bird’s existence

Green.view | Staying the courser | Economist.com

 AP Forest Dept picture

The article is about the Jerdon's Courser, a small, brown wader that comes out in the night, is very, very  rarely seen and every Indian birdwatcher of repute and age has a story to tell about trying to see one or having seen one!

Considered extinct for a while, then "rediscovered" in 2003,  by Bharat Bhushan, who is an MNS and BNHS member,  the little bird's cause has been taken up by the BNHS - kudos to them - who seem to have successfully changed the course of the planned Telegu-Ganga canal, to avoid this bird's territory.

The paragraph from the article which I like best is this -

With many troublesome conservationists—and righteous judges—India has guarded its magnificent wildlife perhaps surprisingly well. Though poor, densely populated and home to many threatened species, it has lost only a handful of animals in recent decades: for example, the Asiatic cheetah, Javanese rhinoceros and Sikkim stag. And it has lost only two species of bird: the pink-headed duck and Himalayan mountain quail. Like the Jerdon’s courser, the forest owlet was also ruled extinct before it was rediscovered. A fish, the Ladakh snow trout, may have similarly have re-emerged from the abyss.

This gives India a better record in conservation than many countries. Yet its wildlife is nonetheless in dreadful jeopardy: from a poor and fast-growing population, eating into India’s remaining forests and marshes; and also, increasingly, from infrastructure projects, fuelled by strong economic growth. The IUCN now groups India with China, Brazil and Indonesia, as countries with the highest number of species facing extinction. Many will no doubt slip more quietly into that long night than the Jerdon’s courser.

A pat on the back for all the hardworking  environmentalists?  

Listen to the call of the courser