LEAPS 2025 | Rhodamine B | Seals and Birds Under Threat in IUCN’s New Red List | Snow Leopards

LEAPS 2025

Syllabus: GS3/Infrastructure

Context

• Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, launched the Logistics Excellence, Advancement, and Performance Shield (LEAPS) 2025.

LEAPS 2025

• Launched by – It is a flagship initiative of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
• Purpose: To benchmark and recognize excellence in the logistics sector, promoting efficiency, sustainability, innovation, and technology adoption.
• Alignment: Supports National Logistics Policy (2022), PM GatiShakti, and initiatives like Make in India and Atmanirbhar Bharat.

Objectives:

• Promote best practices in logistics operations.
• Encourage ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) compliance and green logistics.
• Foster collaboration between government, industry, and academia.

Rhodamine B

Syllabus: GS3/ Science & Technoly

In Context

• Scientists at the Raman Research Institute (RRI) in India have developed an effective and sensitive method to detect toxic molecules like Rhodamine B.

Rhodamine B

• Rhodamine B is a water-soluble synthetic dye known for its bright pink fluorescent color.
• Rhodamine B is toxic and has carcinogenic potential; it can cause damage to skin, eyes, and the respiratory system.

Seals and Birds Under Threat in IUCN’s New Red List

Syllabus: GS3/ Environment

Context

• Arctic seals and global bird populations are facing severe threats from climate change and human activities. It is highlighted in the latest IUCN Red List of Threatened Species released at the World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi.

Key Findings of the Report

• Status of Arctic Seals: The IUCN Red List now includes 172,620 species, of which 48,646 are threatened with extinction.
• The hooded seal has been moved from Vulnerable to Endangered status.
• Bearded and harp seals are now classified as Near Threatened.
• Status of global bird populations: 61% of bird species are experiencing population decline, up from 44% in 2016.
• Out of 11,185 bird species, 1,256 (11.5%) are globally threatened.
• The green sea turtle has been downlisted from endangered to least concern after its population rose by 28% since the 1970s.

International Union of Conservation of Nature

• Establishment – 1948.
• Set up in – Gland, Switzerland.
• Objective – To promote international cooperation and to provide scientific knowledge and tools to aid conservation action.
• IUCN Red List – It established the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in 1964.

IUCN Red List

• It is a list compiled by the IUCN, which contains the world’s most comprehensive information on the conservation status of plants, animals, and fungus species.

• Species in the IUCN Red List – There are 143000 species on the Red List.

• India’s membership in IUCN – India became a member in 1969

• The IUCN classification – The IUCN classification of species is based on their extinction/conservation status.

They are as follows 

• Extinct (EX)
• Extinct in the Wild (EW)
• Critically Endangered (CR)
• Endangered (EN), Vulnerable (VU)
• Near Threatened (NT)
• Least Concern (LC)

Snow Leopards

Syllabus: GS3/Species in News

In News

• The snow leopard, known as the elusive “ghost of the mountains”, has the lowest genetic diversity among big cats, even lower than the critically endangered cheetah.

More about the news

• A Stanford University study, using whole-genome sequencing of 37 snow leopards, concluded that this low diversity is likely due to a persistently small population over evolutionary history rather than recent inbreeding.

Snow Leopard

• Scientific name – Panthera uncia
• Habitats – The Snow Leopard lives at high altitudes in the steep mountains of Central and Southern Asia, and in an extremely cold climate.
• Range states – Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim .
• Ghost of the mountains – The Snow Leopard is also known as Ghost of the mountains
• Bio indicator – It acts as an indicator of the health of the mountain ecosystem
• Snow Leopard capital of the world – Hemis, Ladakh.
• International Snow Leopard Day – It is observed on 23rd October.

Conservation status 

• IUCN Red List- Vulnerable
• CITES convention – Appendix I
• Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972– Schedule I

Conservation Efforts Launched by India

1. Project Snow Leopard (PSL)

• Launched in – 2009
• Objective – To promote an inclusive and participatory approach to conserve snow leopards and their habitat.

1. Species recovery programme – Snow Leopard is in the list of 21 critically endangered species for the recovery programme of the Ministry of Environment Forest & Climate Change.
2. Snow Leopard conservation breeding programme – It is undertaken at Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park, Darjeeling, West Bengal.
3. HimalSanrakshak – It is a community volunteer programme, to protect snow leopards, launched on 23rd October 2020.
4. First National Protocol –  was also launched In 2019.
5. SECURE Himalaya – Global Environment Facility (GEF) , United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) funded the project on conservation of high altitude biodiversity and reducing the dependency of local communities on the natural ecosystem.

International Conservation Efforts

• SNOW LEOPARD ECOSYSTEM PROTECTION PROGRAM – It seeks to address high-mountain development issues using the conservation of the endangered snow leopard as a flagship program.
• Bishkek Declaration – In 2013, the 12 snow leopard range countries signed and agreed to secure at least 20 snow leopard landscapes across by 2020
• International Year of the Snow Leopard – Year ‘2015’ was designated as International Year of the Snow Leopard

Recent Census –

• The exercise reported 718 snow leopards in India
• It was conducted from 2019 to 2023.
• Conducted by – The program was conducted by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) with the help of all snow leopard range states and two conservation partners – the Nature Conservation Foundation, Mysuru (Karnataka), and WWF (World Wildlife Fund)-India.
• Based on data analysis, the estimated population of 718 snow leopards in different states/UTs are as follows – Ladakh (477), Uttarakhand (124), Himachal Pradesh (51), Arunachal Pradesh (36), Sikkim (21), and J & K (9).