One third of India's flora and fauna species are now facing extinction

More than half of the globe's wildlife population, especially those living in freshwater, are facing an imminent decline as human needs are destroying natural habitats, the Living Planet Report 2016 has said.

India is one of the vulnerable countries as more than a third of our mammals, freshwater fishes, reptiles and amphibians are facing extinction.

The Living Planet Report is a biennial effort of World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in collaboration with several other research and non-profit institutions. Using data sources across the globe, it creates a Living Planet Index that reflects the health of ecology and fauna. For the 2016 report, over 14,000 vertebrate populations of 3,706 vertebrate species were studied.

The report has warned that if habitats continue to be exploited, primarily for agriculture and other human needs globally, wildlife could decline by an average of 67 per cent between 1970 and 2020. In fact, the report has said that global populations of fishes, birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles have already declined by 58 per cent between 1970 and 2012. At present, agriculture occupies about one-third of the Earth's total land area and accounts for almost 70 per cent of water use.

The rapid decline of flora and fauna and recent studies suggest that we are on the edge of a sixth mass extinction. Studies indicated that extinction rates are up to 100 to 1,000 extinctions per 10,000 species in a span of 100 years. "Our consumption patterns and the way we look at our natural world are constantly shaping the future of our planet. At WWF-India, we believe that the power to build a resilient planet for future generations lies in our understanding of how we are moving into this new epoch that scientists are calling the Anthropocene and adopting sustainable practices that decrease humanity's impacts on the planet," said Ravi Singh, Secretary General and CEO, WWF-India.

In India, forests, wildlife and freshwater resources are at a constant conflict with development projects. While several big coal blocks are located near freshwater sources, forests are being cleared for infrastructure and as a result, the space for wildlife is shrinking. According to the report, 70 per cent of our surface water is polluted and 60 per cent of groundwater sources are expected to be in a critical state within the next decade.

The decline of wildlife is not surprising given the rate of global deforestation, as accounted by global forest resources assessment. It said that 129 million hectares of forests or an area larger than South Africa was cut down since 1990 on a net basis while gross loss was 239 million hectares of forests.