Great Indian Bustard chick born in Gujarat after a decade

• A Great Indian Bustard (GIB) chick was born in Gujarat’s Kutch after a decade through a novel conservation measure known as the jumpstart approach, Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav announced.

• It was coordinated by the Union Environment Ministry, State Forest Departments of Rajasthan and Gujarat, and Wildlife Institute of India. 

• This is the first inter-state jumpstart initiative of the GIB in the country, which was successfully executed in Gujarat.

• In Gujarat only three female GIBs are surviving in the grasslands of Kutch, leaving no possibility of having a fertile egg in the wild. 

• The female GIB tagged in August 2025 laid an infertile egg in Kutch, where the local population had lost all its males long ago. 

• It took an arduous 770 km road journey to transport an incubated egg to the desired nesting site in Kutch, which was undertaken without a break by creating a halt-free corridor from Sam (Rajasthan) to Naliya (Gujarat). . 

• In a major trans-state conservation effort, a captive-bred GIB egg from the conservation breeding programme in Rajasthan was transported by road for over 19 hours in a handheld portable incubator and was successfully replaced in the nest.

• The female completed the incubation of the fertile egg and successfully hatched the chick on March 26, with the field monitoring team observing the young chick being reared by its foster mother in its natural habitat. 

• The number of birds in conservation breeding centres at Sam and Ramdevra in Rajasthan has reached 73, with the addition of five new chicks during the current breeding season. 

• India is now moving ahead towards the rewilding of birds in the near future as part of long-term conservation planning.

Great Indian Bustard

• The Great Indian Bustard (Ardeotis nigriceps) is a critically endangered species.

• They are found in localised grassland habitats and have been facing challenges of habitat degradation and anthropogenic factors. 

• The decline in the population of the Great Indian Bustards is associated with a variety of factors such as loss of habitat, degradation of habitat quality, enhanced agriculture, and predation by feral and domesticated dogs, other wild carnivores and associated anthropogenic activities. 

• The collision with the high tension power line and wind mills are also one of the reasons for mortality. 

• Further, GIBs are also considered as slow breeders. 

Threats due to power lines

• The Wildlife Institute of India (WII) in its Report “Power Line Mitigation, 2018” has stated that every year one lakh birds die due to collision with power lines. 

• Overhead power lines are the biggest threat to the survival of the GIBs. 

• The Report concluded that unless power line mortality is mitigated urgently, extinction of GIBs is certain.

• The Great Indian Bustard is one of the heaviest flying birds in the world, about a metre in height and wingspan of around seven feet.

• The Great Indian Bustard lacks frontal vision. Due to this, they cannot detect power lines ahead of them, from far.  As they are heavy birds, they are unable to manoeuvre across power lines within close distances. Thus, they are vulnerable to collision with power lines.

• In case of low voltage lines, electrocution is often the cause of death due to smaller phase to phase separation distance.

Steps taken by govt for protection of GIBs

• The Great Indian Bustard is listed in Schedule-I of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, thereby, according it highest degree of legal protection from hunting.

• Important habitats of GIBs are designated as national parks/sanctuaries for their better protection.

• The species has been identified for conservation efforts under the component ‘Species Recovery Programme’ of the Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS)-Development of Wildlife Habitat. 

• Financial and technical assistance is provided to state/Union Territory governments under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Development of Wildlife Habitat for providing better protection to Great Indian Bustard and its habitat.

• The Union Environment Ministry has taken up an initiative on conservation breeding of the Great Indian Bustard in collaboration with Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra forest departments and technical support from Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun. 

• Two conservation breeding centers have been established at Sam and Ramdevra in Jaisalmer district, Rajasthan. 

• The programme has developed techniques for artificial hatching, chick rearing, bustard husbandry, and captive breeding. The GIB has been bred in captivity successfully under this programme.

• Great Indian Bustard has been included in the Appendix I of Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) on the basis of a proposal submitted by India.

(The author is a trainer for Civil Services aspirants.)