{"id":10656,"date":"2025-05-28T02:35:50","date_gmt":"2025-05-27T21:05:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=10656"},"modified":"2025-05-29T01:04:46","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T19:34:46","slug":"what-is-dugong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/what-is-dugong\/","title":{"rendered":"Dugong"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Dugong Latest News<\/h2>\n<p>Every year, May 28th is celebrated as World Dugong Day.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>About Dugong<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Dugongs (Dugong dugon) are the only\u00a0<strong>herbivorous mammal<\/strong>s found in India\u2019s marine ecosystems.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Appearance:<\/strong>\u00a0It is\u00a0<strong>known as the sea cow<\/strong>, but resembles a cross between a seal and a whale, and is\u00a0<strong>distributed through the Indo-Pacific region.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Distribution:\u00a0<\/strong>They are found along the Indian coastline, primarily inhabiting warm waters around the\u00a0<strong>Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the Gulf of Mannar, Palk Bay, and the Gulf of Kutch<\/strong>. The dugong is a long-lived species, able to live up to\u00a0<strong>70 years.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Habitat:\u00a0<\/strong>Due to their\u00a0<strong>dependence on seagrass beds<\/strong>\u00a0for habitat and food, dugongs are\u00a0<strong>restricted to shallow waters<\/strong>, where they spend the day feeding on seagrasses of the genera\u00a0<strong>Cymodocea, Halophila, Thalassia, and Halodule.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Reproduction of Dugong\u00a0<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Individuals reach reproductive\u00a0<strong>maturity after only nine or ten years<\/strong>\u00a0and can give birth at intervals of around three to five years.<\/li>\n<li>Due to its slow reproductive cycle, extended time to maturity, and infrequent calving, a dugong population\u2019s maximum potential\u00a0<strong>growth rate is estimated to be just about 5% per year.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Conservation status of Dugong<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>IUCN:<\/strong>\u00a0Vulnerable<\/li>\n<li><strong>CITES:\u00a0<\/strong>Appendix I<\/li>\n<li><strong>Wildlife Protection Act 1972: Schedule I<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Threats:\u00a0<\/strong>The threats they face worldwide include rapidly declining populations and the ongoing\u00a0<strong>degradation of their seagrass habitats.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Dugong FAQs<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Q1:<\/strong>\u00a0Where is dugong found in India?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ans:<\/strong>\u00a0Dugongs are protected in India and occur in Gulf of Mannar, PalkBay, Gulf of Kutch and Andaman and Nicobar islands.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q2:<\/strong>\u00a0Which national park is famous for dugong?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ans:<\/strong>\u00a0Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q3:<\/strong>\u00a0What is the scientific name for the dugong?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ans:<\/strong>\u00a0Scientific name: Dugong dugon\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/energy-and-environment\/world-dugong-day-india-vulnerable-conservation-priority\/article69624446.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TH<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dugongs (Dugong dugon) are the only herbivorous marine mammals in India, playing a vital role in maintaining healthy seagrass ecosystems along the coast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":48518,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[613,21,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-10656","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-dugong","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}