In News: Karnataka, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh rank high in the conservation of dhole in India, according to a new study.
Dhole
The dhole is a canid native to Central, South, East Asia, and Southeast Asia.
India perhaps supports the largest number of dholes, with key populations found in three landscapes — Western Ghats, Central India and Northeast India.
IUCN Status: Endangered
Dholes play an important role as apex predators in forest ecosystems.
Besides the tiger, the dhole is the only large carnivore in India that is under IUCN’s ‘endangered’ category.
Factors contributing to this decline include habitat loss, loss of prey, competition with other species, persecution due to livestock predation and disease transfer from domestic dogs.
Do You Know?
In 2014, the Indian government sanctioned its first dhole conservation breeding centre at the Indira Gandhi Zoological Park (IGZP) in Visakhapatnam.
In India, the dhole is protected under Schedule 2 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
