Great Indian Bustards

Great Indian Bustards

Subject: Environment

Context: The Central government informed the Rajya Sabha that there were no Great Indian Bustards (GIB) in Kutch Bustard Sanctuary (KBS) in Gujarat’s Kutch district as on January 1 this year.

Concept:

• Great Indian Bustards is the heaviest birds with flight,
• GIBs prefer grasslands as their habitats
• GIBs are the largest among the four bustard species found in India, the other three being MacQueen’s bustard, lesser florican and the Bengal florican.
• They spend most of their time on the ground with occasional flights to go from one part of their habitat to the other.
• The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has categorized GIBs as critically endangered, thus on the brink of extinction from the wild.
• They feed on insects, lizards, grass seeds etc. GIBs are considered the flagship bird species of grassland and hence barometers of the health of grassland ecosystems.

Recent Data

• The Central government had told the 13th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Convention on Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) held in Gandhinagar, that the GIB population in India had fallen to just
• The Central government informed the Rajya Sabha that there were no Great Indian Bustards (GIB) in Kutch Bustard Sanctuary (KBS) in Gujarat’s Kutch district this year.

Spread:

The historical range of these majestic birds included much of Indian sub-continent but it has now shrunk by 90 per cent,

• 128 birds were in Rajasthan,
• 10 in Kutch district of Gujarat and
• A few in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
• Pakistan is also host a few GIBs.
• Besides the KBS, Prajau, Bhanada and Kunathia-Bhachunda are important grasslands

Threats

• Scientists of Wildlife Institute of India (WII) have been pointing out overhead power transmission lines as the biggest threat to the GIBs
• Due to their poor frontal vision, can’t detect powerlines in time and their weight make in-flight quick manoeuvres difficult.
• Change in landscape by way of farmers cultivating their land, and cultivation of cotton and wheat instead of pulses and fodder are also cited as reasons for falling GIB numbers.

Conservation measures

• In 2015, the Central government launched the GIB species recovery programme, WII and Rajasthan forest department have jointly set up conservation breeding centres where GIB eggs harvested from the wild are incubated artificially and hatchlings raised in controlled environment.
• The Supreme Court in April this year ordered that all overhead power transmission lines in core and potential GIB habitats in Rajasthan and Gujarat should be undergrounded

Kutch Bustard Sanctuary

• KBS near Naliya in Kutch district’s Abdasa block is a tiny sanctuary notified in 1992 and spread over just two square kilometres (sqkm).
• Its eco-sensitive zone spread over 220 sqkm covers most of present-day core GIB habitat. The creation of safe-haven for the birds led to an increase in the GIB population in KBS—from 30 in 1999 to 45 in 2007.
• The sanctuary is bounded on the north by the Jakhau creeks, along the coast of Kutch. where large flocks of flamingos, herons, egrets, sandpipers and other birds can be seen
• The sanctuary lies in the ecological zone of the semi desert region. Hence, the climate is arid, rainfall is meagre and erratic, with an average annual precipitation of 384 millimetres.