SLENDER LORIS - ENVIRONMENT
News: Karnataka to soon have Slender Loris Community
Conservation Reserve
What's in the news?
● Karnataka will soon have India’s first Slender
Loris Community Conservation Reserve.
Key takeaways:
● The forest department is working on the proposal,
with the help of locals of Nagawalli in Tumkuru to declare the area falling
under seven gram panchayats spread across 7 sq kms in the area as a community
conservation reserve.
Slender Loris:
● Slender Loris is a small nocturnal mammal that
spends most of its life on trees.
Habitat:
● They are native
to India and Sri Lanka and are also amongst the world’s top 25 endangered
primates.
Features:
● It prefers to inhabit thick, thorny bushes and
bamboo clumps where it can evade predators and also find insects, which is the
main diet.
● Their most prominent feature is the pair of two
large, closely set, brown eyes.
● Among the strange habits they have is the urine washing of their face and limbs,
which is thought to soothe or defend against the sting of the toxic insects
they prefer to eat.
Conservation Status:
● IUCN Status -
Endangered
● Wild Life Protection Act, 1972 - Schedule 1
Significance:
● They act as biological
predators of pests that harm agricultural crops and help farmers.
Important Takeaways:
● The Kadavur
Slender Loris sanctuary was notified in 2022 to conserve the primates in Tamil Nadu.