- As Great Salt Lake dries, Utah Republicans pardon Trump climate skepticism
- Amazon activist warns of 'critical situation' ahead of UN forum
- Mourners pay tribute to latest victims of deadly Channel crossing
- Phillies win thriller to level Mets series
- Yu bags first PGA Tour win with playoff win
- PSG held by Nice to leave Monaco clear at top of Ligue 1
- Lewandowski treble for leaders Barca as Atletico held
- Fresh Israeli strikes hit south Beirut
- Sucic stunner earns Real Sociedad draw against Atletico
- PSG draw with Nice, fail to reclaim top spot in Ligue 1
- Gudmundsson downs AC Milan after De Gea's penalty heroics for Fiorentina
- 'Yes' vote prevails in Kazakhstan nuclear plant vote: TV
- 'Difficult day': Oct 7 commemorations begin with festival memorial
- Commemorations begin for anniversary of attack on Israel
- 'Nothing gets in way of team,' says Celtics' MVP hopeful Tatum
- 'We will win!': Mozambique's ruling party confident at final vote rally
- Tunisia voting ends as Saied eyes re-election with critics behind bars
- Florida braces for Milton, FEMA head slams 'dangerous' Helene misinformation
- Postecoglou slams 'unacceptable' Spurs after 'terrible' loss at Brighton
- Marmoush double denies Bayern outright Bundesliga top spot
- Rallies worldwide call for Gaza, Lebanon ceasefire
- New 'Joker' film, a dark musical, tops N.America box office
- Man Utd stalemate keeps Ten Hag in danger, Spurs rocked by Brighton
- Drowned by hurricane, remote N.Carolina towns now struggle for water
- Vikings hold off Jets in London to stay unbeaten
- Ahead of attack anniversary, Netanyahu says: 'We will win'
- West Indies cruise to T20 World Cup win over Scotland
- Man Utd fire another blank in Aston Villa stalemate
- Lewandowski treble powers Liga leaders Barca to Alaves victory
- Russian activist killed on front line in Ukraine
- Openda strike briefly sends Leipzig top of Bundesliga
- Goal-shy Man Utd have to 'step up', says Ten Hag
- India bowl out Bangladesh for 127 in T20 opener
- Madueke rescues Chelsea in draw with 10-man Forest
- Beckett's belief rewarded as Bluestocking storms to Arc glory
- Trump on the stump, Harris hits airwaves in razor-edge US election
- Flash flooding kills three in northern Thailand
- Kaur leads India to victory over Pakistan in Women's T20 World Cup
- Juventus held by Cagliari after late penalty drama
- In France's Marseille, teen 'stabbed 50 times' then burned alive
- Ruthless Gauff beats Muchova in straight sets to win China Open
- India restrict Pakistan to 105-8 in Women's T20 World Cup
- England target repeat of Pakistan Test whitewash
- Penrith Panthers win fourth straight NRL title after downing Storm
- Weary Sinner happy for day off after battling into Shanghai last 16
- Pakistan's Masood warns England still a force without Stokes
- Madrid's Carvajal to miss several months after serious knee injury
- Two elephants die in flash flooding in northern Thailand
- Sabalenka targets world number one and Wuhan hat-trick
- Tunisia votes with Saied set for re-election
Protecting India's tigers also good for climate: study
India's efforts to protect its endangered tigers have inadvertently helped avoid a large amount of climate change-causing carbon emissions by preventing deforestation, a study said on Thursday.
Three-quarters of the world's wild tigers live in India, but the destruction of their natural habitat have seen their numbers plummet.
The number of tigers roaming the country's forests fell from 40,000 when India gained independence in 1947 to just 1,500 in 2006.
However their number rose above 3,000 this year, according to the latest official figures.
To help their numbers rebound, India has designated 52 tiger reserves where logging and deforestation are heavily regulated.
Aakash Lamba, a researcher at the National University of Singapore and the new study's lead author, told AFP that tigers are an "umbrella species".
This "means that by protecting them we also protect the forests they live in, which are home to an incredible diversity of wildlife," he told AFP.
Forests are a "carbon sink", which mean they absorb more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than they release, making them a crucial tool in the fight against climate change.
India, the world's third largest emitter of greenhouse gases, has pledged to lower its emissions.
- Million metric tons -
Lamba, who grew up in India, said the team of researchers sought to establish an empirical link between tiger conservation and carbon emissions.
They compared the rate of deforestation in the special tiger reserves to areas where the big cats also live, but are less strictly protected.
More than 61,000 hectares of forest was lost across 162 different areas between 2001 and 2020, according to the study.
More than three quarters of the deforestation was in areas outside of the tiger reserves.
Inside the tiger reserves, almost 6,000 hectares was saved from deforestation between 2007 to 2020. That equates to more than a million metric tons of carbon emissions avoided, the study estimated.
Lamba emphasised the economic impact of those saved emissions in a country that has been hit hard by the effects of climate change -- particularly the agricultural industry.
Taking into account the social cost of those emissions, more than $92 million had been saved, the researchers calculated.
If counted as part of an carbon offset scheme, the avoided deforestation amounted to more than $6 million, they added.
"The financial benefits of avoiding carbon emissions are more than a quarter of the annual expenditure on tiger conservation in India," Lamba said.
"This significant outcome highlights how investments in wildlife conservation not only safeguard ecosystems and wildlife but also benefit societies and economies."
The study was published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.
The findings come after a study published in March suggested protecting or restoring a handful of wild animals such as whales, wolves and otters could help capture 6.4 billion tons of carbon dioxide every year.
A.Santos--PC