South Central Asia
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South Central Asia is comprised of the South Asian countries of Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, and the adjacent Central Asian countries. The species in this region fall largely into two ecological groups, those of the Himalayan forests that are of conservation concern and those of more open habitats in the plains both to the south of this range and of Central Asia. The key area is the entire Himalayan range, which has recently been acknowledged as a biodiversity ‘hotspot'. Other conservation interest centres on individual species, such as the Himalayan quail which has not been reliably recorded for more than 100 years, and the Manipur bush-quail which has not been seen for more than 70 years. There are 56 species in this region: 20 pheasants, 31 partridges, quail, snowcock and spurfowl, four grouse and a megapode. Most of the pheasants are found in the forests of the Himalayas and are of conservation concern. In contrast, the majority of the partridges, quail, snowcock and spurfowl live in open areas and have large distributions. Many protected areas in the plains of India contain up to eight such species. The conservation problems in the Himalayas have resulted from the familiar issue of forest loss, with the remaining patches of habitat becoming more accessible for hunters. Whilst some hunting has very strong traditional roots, the decreasing size of forest patches means that it is likely to become more and more of a problem for wild populations. WPA has been active in this region since it started and examples of current work in South Central Asia include: People, forests and pheasants in Palas Valley, northern Pakistan Pheasants and schools at Pipar in the Annapurna Himalaya, Nepal |
