The Wildlife Trust of India says 35 wetlands across ten districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh were legally notified in April 2026, putting 1,243.8 hectares under statutory protection.
Sarus Crane
A herd of nine elephants, including two calves, wandered out of Bhimgad Wildlife Sanctuary and into the paddy fields around Khanapur taluk this week, in what officials say is the first elephant movement ever recorded in the Belagavi Forest Division.
Forest officials in India’s Uttar Pradesh have confirmed a new nesting and breeding colony of Sarus Cranes in Etawah, around 300 km from Delhi.
More than a dozen nests, containing two chicks each of the Sarus, which is incidentally the state bird, have been sighted by forest department personnel, ornithologists and wildlife activists in the wetlands and paddy fields of Etawah and Mainpuri districts, the Times of India reports.
This has been the first sighting of nesting and breeding of the bird in Etawah and Mainpuri, Times of India reported, citing forest officials.
“The figure of the number of nests may increase. The counting process of nests is still on as the nesting and breeding season of World’s tallest bird is not yet over,” said divisional forest officer Kanhaiya Patel.