CURRENT AFFAIRS

Detailed explanation-1: -This endemic species of the Western Ghats is listed as Endangered in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and is protected under Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act of India, 1972.

Detailed explanation-2: -It divides species into nine categories: Not Evaluated, Data Deficient, Least Concern, Near Threatened, Vulnerable, Endangered, Critically Endangered, Extinct in the Wild and Extinct.

Detailed explanation-3: -Therefore Ogilby’s hylocrius remained as the standard name. Then in 2005 Ropiquet and Hassanin placed the Nilgiri Tahr in the monotypic genus Nilgiritragus, based on analyses of four molecular markers (1) and it was ascertained that the Nilgiri Tahr is related to Ovis – the genus of the sheep.

Detailed explanation-4: -Species that are not threatened by extinction are placed within the first two categories-least concern and near-threatened. Those that are most threatened are placed within the next three categories, known as the threatened categories-vulnerable, endangered, and critically endangered.

Detailed explanation-5: -The Nilgiri tahr is primarily threatened by habitat loss and disturbance caused by invasive species, and in some sites by livestock grazing, poaching and fragmentation of the landscape.