Tamil Nadu notifies India’s first slender loris sanctuary

Tamil Nadu notifies India’s first slender loris sanctuary

13/10/2022

 

In a first in the country, the Tamil Nadu government

on Wednesday notified the Kaduvur slender loris sanctuary covering 11,806 hectares in Karur and Dindigul districts.

Slender lorises

1 which are small nocturnal रात में जागने वाले और दिन में सोने वाले, निशाचर और दिवाशायी mammals,

2  are arboreal / living in trees as they spend most of their life on trees.

3 The species acts as a biological predator of pests in agricultural crops and benefits farmers. 

4 Listed as an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, slender loris has a wide range of ecological roles in the terrestrial ecosystem.

Habitat improvement

1 The survival of the species depends on 

🌺habitat improvement, 

🌺conservation 

🌺and mitigation of threats, Supriya Sahu, Additional Chief Secretary, Environment, Climate Change and Forests, said in a statement. 

2 Realising the need for immediate conservation 

of this species, the State government identified forest areas measuring 11,800 hectares in Karur and Dindigul districts.

3 The sanctuary will cover Vedasandur, Dindigul East and Natham taluks in Dindigul district and Kadavur taluk in Karur district.

4 In significant steps towards conservation of wildlife, the State government

🌺 notified India’s first Dugong Conservation Reserve in the Palk Bay, 

🌺Kazhuveli bird sanctuary in Villupuram, 🌺Nanjarayan Tank birds sanctuary in Tiruppur

🌺 and the State’s fifth elephant reserve at Agasthyamalai in Tirunelveli. Further,

 🌺13 wetlands were declared as Ramsar sites.

These path-breaking initiatives in 15 months have put Tamil Nadu at a pivotal position in the field of conservation, Ms. Sahu said.