Many of us love the natural world. We find animals cute, majestic and even fascinating - but rapid urbanisation and deforestation are threatening their population all over the world.

As India hosts an international UN summit to discuss new measures to protect endangered wildlife, it is also facing an increasing risk of extinction of three of these species - the Great Indian Bustard, Asiatic Elephant and the Bengal Florican. In fact, nearly 100 bird species in the country are also at risk of extinction.

Is development coming at a cost of depleting natural resources? Is it time the authorities took stricter measures to prevent poaching, habitat encroachment and illegal trade of animals? WorklifeIndia discusses the reasons and the solutions to mitigate India's vanishing wildlife species.

Presenter: Devina Gupta

Contributors: Dr Ramesh Krishnamurthy, scientist, Wildlife Institute of India; Latika Nath, wildlife conservation ecologist; Aparna Rajagopal, chairperson, Wildlife SOS

Photo: Elephants in woodland Credit: Getty Images