Context

• Recently, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’s has decided to observe the first-ever International Horseshoe Crab Day on 20th June 2020.

About the Crab

• Horseshoe crabs are marine and brackish water arthropods.
• They are not true crabs, which are crustaceans.
• The crabs are represented by four extant species in the world.
• They are the American horseshoe crab, tri-spine horseshoe crab, coastal horseshoe crab and mangrove horseshoe crab.
• Out of the four, two species are distributed along the northeast coast of India.
• Only T gigas species of the horseshoe crab is found along Balasore coast of Odisha.
• Odisha is their largest habitat in India.
• The crab was included on September 9, 2009, in the Schedule IV of the Wild (Life) Protection Act, 1972, under which, the catching and killing of a horseshoe crab is an offence. IUCN-Unknown.