Wildlife and Nature Conservation - Centre for Ecological Sciences

cultivated by man. The human race has a terrible track record of depleting, degeneratingand making extinct the wild counterparts of the species , both floral and faunal, that it hasdomesticated and used. The wild dromedary and the Kouprey, the progenitor of ourdomestic cattle, are but two examples. Ironically, however, nobody takes any notice. Thesyndrome continues in India and no one seems even to notice.The wild buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) is a classic example of “genetic swamping” of theliving dead. There are more domesticated buffalo in the world than all the other livestockspecies put together. The wild animals are far larger than their domesticated brethren, andthe foetus of a calf sired by a wild bull is so large that mortality of the mother is acommon feature during birth. The wild buffalo from the human welfare viewpoint isperhaps the most valuable wild animal in the world. There are now possibly no true wildbuffaloes outside India.In India, in the recent past, they occurred only in Assam and Chhattisgarh; and in Nepalonly in the Kosi Tappu Sanctury. The ones in Kaziranga got degenerated in past decades,as did the Kosi Tappu population. Manas Tiger Reserve in Assam had the largestsurviving “pure” wild buffalo. But no more. Genetic degeneration has changed thecomposition of the entire population. The malaise has started affecting the remnantpopulation in the Udanti sanctuary in Raipur. There are perhaps less than 30 true wildbuffalo left in the world, severely pursued and harried in the insurgent – controlledIndravati National Park in Bastar. The Government is at present not even contemplatinga serious programme to save the genetic purity of this magnificent animal.The progenitor of the domestic fowl is the red jungle fowl, another most “valuable”genetic resource for man. But here too crossbreeding with domestic fowl has started andthe wild counterparts are being affected. Interbreeding is also occurring amongst wildand domestic pigs. In the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the survival of the indigenousand ecologically adapted Andaman pig (Sus scrofa andamanensis) as a wild taxa is underthreat.Wild mangoes perhaps exist nowhere in India except in the Satpura National Park inMadhya Pradesh. Wild citrus, wild rice and others are also threatened by genetic infusionfrom domestic counterparts.A special survival strategy will have to be worked out to save the remaining truly wildbuffalo on the highest priority. Domesticated chickens and pigs should not be allowedwithin National Parks and efforts need to be made to segregate the wild and domesticstocks of these two animals.Genetic material will have to be kept of the pure wild buffalo, if any do remain by thetime this action is initiated, to someday revive the species in a test tube. The same is trueof many gravely endangered faunal and floral life forms.9.12 Recovery of Endangered SpeciesThere are a number of species of fauna and flora, listed under Schedule I of the WildLife (Protection) Act, 1972, which are critically endangered. They need to have specialrecovery plans prepared to ensure their recovery and to prevent extinction, local or total.Under these individual plans, which need to be revised every five years or so, the134