Wildlife population declined by 73% in 50 years: WWF report

Monitored global wildlife populations have declined by 73 per cent in the last 50 years, owing to habitat loss, degradation, impacts of climate change and invasive species, the World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) biennial living planet report said.

In India, the decline of three vulture species – white-rumped vulture, Indian vulture, and slender-billed vulture, has been alarming, WWF said.

The report’s conclusions were based on tracking 35,000 population trends and 5,495 species of amphibians, mammals, birds, fish and reptiles. To be sure, the decline is not in terms of the number of populations lost but the average changes in monitored animal populations around the world. Among the different ecosystems, the freshwater populations saw the highest decline with their populations falling by 85 per cent, followed by terrestrial populations, which saw a 69 per cent decline and a 56 per cent decline in marine populations, according to the report. Habitat loss, over exploitation, climate change, pollution, invasive species, diseases were the dominant drivers of the decline of wildlife. Habitat loss was driven by unsustainable agriculture, fragmentation, logging, mining, to name a few causes.