{"id":128299,"date":"2026-10-10T11:10:24","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T05:40:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=128299"},"modified":"2026-10-10T11:10:24","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T05:40:24","slug":"great-indian-bustard-conservation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/great-indian-bustard-conservation\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Indian Bustard Conservation: Rewilding and Recovery Challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Great Indian Bustard conservation Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recently, India achieved a conservation milestone \u2014 two captive-bred male Great Indian Bustards (GIBs) were released into the wild for the first time, at Desert National Park, near Jaisalmer, Rajasthan.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This rewilding pilot is part of <\/span><b>Project GIB<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, run by the Centre, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wildlife-institute-of-india\/\" target=\"_blank\">Wildlife Institute of India (WII)<\/a><\/strong>, and the governments of Rajasthan and Gujarat. While historic, experts caution that population recovery remains a long-term challenge.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>The Great Indian Bustard: Why It Matters<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The GIB is a large, ground-dwelling bird found in savannahs, grasslands, and deserts.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Until the late 19th\/early 20th century, it was spread across 11 states \u2014 from Haryana in the north to Tamil Nadu in the south, and Rajasthan in the west to Odisha in the east.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Causes of Decline<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hunting and egg poaching.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Conversion of open habitats into croplands and mining areas.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Collisions with renewable energy power lines \u2014 the GIB\u2019s poor frontal vision and heavy body make it hard to detect or avoid overhead wires.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Population Collapse<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From an estimated 1,260\u20131,400 birds in the early 1970s, numbers have crashed to just around 150 today.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Of these, around 130 (\u00b120) are in Rajasthan \u2014 the rest scattered across Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh, facing local extinction risk.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Project GIB: The Conservation Breeding Effort<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A long-term bustard and lesser florican conservation project was launched by the Centre and Rajasthan government in 2012\u201313, expanded from 2014 with funding for a <\/span><b>conservation breeding programme<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From 2019, wild GIB eggs were collected from Desert National Park and nearby areas, artificially incubated at two centres \u2014 Sam and Ramdevra (Rajasthan) \u2014 and hand-reared.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These hand-reared birds have since bred at the centres, producing 98 birds so far.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Of these: 2 released (Oct 4, 2026); 11 earmarked for future wild release; the rest remain in captivity for continued breeding.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>What Does Rewilding Involve?<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rewilding means transitioning captive-bred birds back into natural habitats.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Key steps taken:<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A rewilding aviary was set up at <\/span><b>Ramdevra Centre<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and a soft-release facility developed by WII inside Desert National Park.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unlike hand-reared adult birds (used to humans), chicks aged 3\u20134 months were released here, allowing them to adapt naturally without human imprinting.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Released birds are fitted with transmitters, sending location\/movement alerts three times daily; teams also monitor them remotely.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Release sites were chosen for their grassland cover and freedom from human\/technological interference.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Challenges to Long-Term Recovery<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Scaling Beyond Rajasthan<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Similar rewilding efforts will be needed in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh \u2014 but only after habitat improvement.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Experts noted that grassland restoration and protection outside Rajasthan is crucial for wider revival, with Gujarat likely to follow if the Rajasthan pilot succeeds.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>The Grassland Protection Gap<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unlike forests, <\/span><b>grasslands are not traditionally treated as \u201cprotected areas<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d in public or policy perception, making them vulnerable to land-use conversion.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This also affects livelihoods of pastoralists and livestock-rearing communities.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bustard expert had flagged this concern as early as 2008 in Hornbill magazine \u2014 warning that forest departments, not graziers, posed the bigger threat by converting grasslands into forests through afforestation and artificial waterhole creation, misunderstanding the bustard\u2019s actual habitat needs.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Legal Safeguards and Persistent Threats<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Following a landmark Supreme Court case on GIB protection, the Court accepted an expert panel\u2019s recommendations and ordered:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Demarcation of \u201cpriority areas\u201d \u2014 14,013 sq km in Rajasthan and 740 sq km in Gujarat.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Undergrounding of 80 km of power lines in Rajasthan, to be completed between 2027 and 2028.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Creation of \u201cpowerline corridors\u201d to accommodate re-routed overhead lines.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Remaining Threats<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Experts warn rewilding won\u2019t be sustainable unless power lines are undergrounded soon.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Limestone mining threatens the open, flat terrain bustards need \u2014 the Supreme Court did not order specific anti-mining measures, and mining operations are proposed on the northern side of Desert National Park, near the release site itself.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Conclusion<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The release of two captive-bred bustards marks a symbolic breakthrough, but survival of the species hinges on far more than breeding success \u2014 it depends on protecting grasslands long dismissed as \u201cwastelands,\u201d undergrounding power lines on schedule, and curbing mining in critical habitats.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unless these systemic threats are addressed with the same urgency as captive breeding, rewilding risks becoming a short-lived experiment rather than a lasting recovery.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source:<\/b> <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/great-indian-bustard-rewilding-rajasthan-project-gib-explained-10909007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">IE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Great Indian Bustard conservation enters a new phase with the first release of captive-bred birds, but habitat loss, power lines and mining threaten recovery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":128316,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[10783,60,22,59],"class_list":["post-128299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","tag-great-indian-bustard-conservation","tag-mains-articles","tag-upsc-current-affairs","tag-upsc-mains-current-affairs","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128299"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":128322,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128299\/revisions\/128322"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}