79 per cent decline in Indian species of birds: Study

There has been a decline in the population of 79 per cent of Indian species of birds, a report submitted in the United Nations meeting on wildlife conservation said on Tuesday.

According to the report, State of India's birds 2020, the number of house sparrows has declined in metropolitan cities while it has remained "roughly stable" across the country. However, in rural India, the population has gone up.

The report was released in Gujarat's Gandhinagar on Mondayon sidelines of the 13th Conference of Parties to the Convention on Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS COP 13).

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The bird groups that showed the greatest decline includes,raptors, migratory shorebirds and habitat specialists, among others.

The report also stressed that101 species classified as of High Conservation Concern, require immediate attention.

Meanwhile, the report also gave some good news as it showed that thenumber of India's national bird, a peacock hasshown a dramatic rise.

As for the Indian peafowl, the abundance trend is that of a general increase, both in long-term and currently, the report said.

The report was made after assessing over10 million observations contributed by over 15,500 birdwatchers.

The assessment is based on three indices, two of change in abundance, long-term trend (over 25+ years) and current annual trend (over the past five years), and the third is a measure of distribution range size.

Using these three indices together with the IUCN Red List (of threatened species), each species was classified into categories of conservation concern for India: 442 in low concern category, 319 in moderate concern category and 101 in high concern category.

(With inputs from agencies)