{"id":65392,"date":"2025-09-27T14:21:31","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T08:51:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=65392"},"modified":"2025-10-13T14:30:54","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T09:00:54","slug":"indias-dugong-conservation-reserve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/indias-dugong-conservation-reserve\/","title":{"rendered":"India\u2019s Dugong Conservation Reserve"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>India\u2019s Dugong Conservation Reserve Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recently, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has formally adopted a motion recognising India\u2019s first Dugong Conservation Reserve in Palk Bay.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About India\u2019s Dugong Conservation Reserve<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is India\u2019s first <\/span><b>Dugong Conservation Reserve.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was established on September 21, 2022, by the <\/span><b>Tamil Nadu government<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> under <\/span><b>the Wildlife<\/b> <b>Protection Act, 1972,<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It covers 448.34 sq. km. in <\/span><b>northern Palk Bay.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The region is home to over 12,250 hectares of <\/span><b>seagrass meadows<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, vital feeding grounds for dugongs (Dugong dugon).\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Seagrasses also support a host of other marine species, making the <\/span><b>reserve ecologically significant.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Key Facts about Dugong<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dugongs (Dugong dugon) are the <\/span><b>only herbivorous mammals<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> found in India\u2019s marine ecosystems.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Appearance:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It is <\/span><b>known as the sea cow<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, but resembles a cross between a seal and a whale, and is distributed through the Indo-Pacific region.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Distribution:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> They are found along the Indian coastline, primarily inhabiting <\/span><b>warm waters<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> around <\/span><b>the Andaman and Nicobar Islands<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the <\/span><b>Gulf of Mannar, <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/palk-strait\/\" target=\"_blank\">Palk Bay<\/a>,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and the <\/span><b>Gulf of Kutch.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The dugong is a long-lived species, able to live up to 70 years.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Habitat:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Dugongs are restricted to <\/span><b>shallow waters<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, where they spend the day feeding on seagrasses of the genera Cymodocea, Halophila, Thalassia, and Halodule.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Reproduction of Dugong\u00a0<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Individuals reach <\/span><b>reproductive maturity after only nine or ten years<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and can give birth at intervals of <\/span><b>around three to five years.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Due to its slow reproductive cycle, extended time to maturity, and infrequent calving, a dugong population\u2019s maximum potential growth rate is estimated to be just about 5% per year.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><b>Conservation status of Dugong<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li><b>IUCN:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Vulnerable<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>CITES: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Appendix I<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Wildlife Protection Act 1972:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Schedule I<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source:<\/b><strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/energy-and-environment\/indias-first-dugong-reserve-in-palk-bay-gains-global-recognition-at-iucn-congress\/article70092524.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TH<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>India\u2019s Dugong Conservation Reserve is India\u2019s first Dugong Conservation Reserve. Read more about India\u2019s Dugong Conservation Reserve, Habitat, Key Facts, Conservation, Latest News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":65383,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2932,21,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-65392","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-dugong-conservation-reserve","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\/65392","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\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}