Ramu

Ramu is an 8-year old monkey living in the Baleswar district of the Indian state of Orissa. The monkey was kept behind bars at the Remuna police station in Orissa for 5 years on the charge of disturbing communal harmony. Ramu was three years old when he attacked and bit a number of children in Jagannathpur village. A Muslim family was taking care of Ramu while the children belonged to the Hindu community, sparking communal tension in the area. The local police decided to arrest the animal after the incident. Once freed, the monkey again went back to biting children leading to his second arrest by the police. The police decided to put him behind bars for good. Under Indian wildlife rules, Rhesus Macaque monkeys like Ramu are a Schedule II endangered species and cannot be kept as pets or in cages. Wildlife activists demanded that some action be taken by the Forest Department of the state. The police claim to have treated the animal well giving it regular meals. According to Niranjan Kumar Dhir, the officer-in-charge at the Remuna police station, the monkey was given regular baths and fed four times a day. Following more pressure from the activists and worldwide attention brought to Ramu's plight, the police released the monkey and handed it over to wildlife officials on October 18, 2006. An endangered species is a species of organisms facing a very high risk of extinction. The phrase is used vaguely in common parlance for any species fitting this description, but its use by conservation biologists typically refers to those deigned Endangered in the IUCN Red List, where it is the second most severe conservation status for wild populations, following Critically Endangered. There are currently 3079 animals and 2655 plants classified as Endangered worldwide, compared with 1998 levels of 1102 and 1197, respectively. The amount, population trend, and conservation status of each species can be found in the Lists of organisms by population. Many nations have laws offering protection to conservation reliant species: for example, forbidding hunting, restricting land development or creating preserves. The conservation status of a species is an indicator of the likelihood of that endangered species becoming extinct. Many factors are taken into account when assessing the conservation status of a species, including statistics such as the number remaining, the overall increase or decrease in the population over time, breeding success rates, known threats, and so on. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is the best-known worldwide conservation status listing and ranking system. It has been estimated that over 40% of all living species on Earth are at risk of going extinct. Internationally, 199 countries have signed an accord agreeing to create Biodiversity Action Plans to protect endangered and other threatened species. In the United States this plan is usually called a species Recovery Plan.