Great Indian Bustard

Great Indian Bustard

Subject: Environment

Section: Biodiversity

Context- Supreme Court seeks update on power cables at Great Indian Bustard’s habitat. Electrocution from overhead high-tension wires contributed to the birds’ falling population.

Concept-

• Wildlife conservationist MK Ranjitsinh Jhala filed a petition in the Supreme Court of India in 2019 for power companies to lay underground wiring in the sacred groves of Jaisalmer. The petition was to protect GIBs and lesser floricans from extinction.
• SC had ordered the power companies in the states of Rajasthan and Gujarat April 19, 2021 to make the high-tension power lines underground so that the large birds do not get caught in the web.
• A three-member high-level committee was also formed to look into the feasibility of the work.

About Great Indian Bustard or Godavan:

• It is the State bird of Rajasthan and is considered India’s most critically endangered bird.
• It is considered the flagship grassland species, representing the health of the grassland ecology.
• Its population is confined mostly to Rajasthan and Gujarat. Small populations occur in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
• The bird is under constant threats due to collision/electrocution with power transmission lines, hunting (still prevalent in Pakistan), habitat loss and alteration as a result of widespread agricultural expansion, etc.
• Protection Status:
  • IUCN Red List: Critically Endangered
  • CITES: Appendix 1
  • Convention on Migratory Species (CMS): Appendix I
  • Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972: Schedule 1
• Around 122 of the total 150 GIBs found in the country were in Jaisalmer district of Rajasthan, according to a 2018 GIB count.
• Since then, the population has declined and now less than 100 GIBs remain in the wild.
• The birds weigh 14-15 kilograms each and can reach a height of up to 4 feet, making them too heavy to change their course mid-way when they wander too close to power lines.