{"id":80921,"date":"2026-01-04T12:10:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T06:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=80921"},"modified":"2026-01-05T16:46:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T11:16:23","slug":"white-bellied-heron","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/white-bellied-heron\/","title":{"rendered":"White-Bellied Heron"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>White-Bellied Heron Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recently, the Union Environment Ministry expert panel has recommended environmental clearance (EC) for the Kalai-II hydroelectric project on Lohit River which is a white-bellied heron habitat.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About White-Bellied Heron<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The white-bellied heron (Ardea insignis ) is a large heron species.<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is the <\/span><b>second largest<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> living species of heron.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Other Names:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It is also known as the <\/span><b>imperial heron<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or great <\/span><b>white-bellied heron.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Its presence in our ecosystem indicates the health of the rivers, the environment, the fish population, and water quality.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Habitat:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It inhabits the <\/span><b>wetlands of tropical and subtropical forests<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the foothills of the <\/span><b>eastern Himalayas<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Distribution:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It is mainly living in the <\/span><b>foothills of the eastern Himalayas<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in northeast India and <\/span><b>Bhutan<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to northern <\/span><b>Myanmar.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Diet:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It prefers free-flowing riverine habitats with low disturbance, and predominantly depends on <\/span><b>fish found in the river rapids<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Threats:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It is threatened by <\/span><b>habitat loss<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><b>increasing disturbance<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and habitat degradation due to conversion of wetlands for agriculture and expansion of settlements<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Conservation Status of White-Bellied Heron<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>IUCN Red List:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Critically Endangered<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Wildlife Protection Act 1972:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Schedule-I<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source: <\/b><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/india\/in-arunachals-white-bellied-heron-habitat-kalai-ii-project-gets-nod-10454074\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">IE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>White-bellied heron (Ardea insignis) is the second largest heron, inhabiting eastern Himalayan wetlands and indicating healthy river ecosystems. Read more about White-Bellied Heron, Habitat, Distribution, Conservation Status, News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":81089,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[21,22,23,4559],"class_list":{"0":"post-80921","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-prelims-pointers","9":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","10":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","11":"tag-white-bellied-heron","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80921","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=80921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}