GREAT INDIAN BUSTARDS

Subject: Environment

Context: The Ministry of Environment along with the Wildlife Conservation Society, India, has come up with a unique initiative — a “firefly bird diverter” for overhead power lines in areas where Great Indian Bustard (GIB) populations are found in the wild.

Concept:

• The GIB is one of the most critically threatened species in India, with fewer than 150 birds left in the wild. It is listed as Critically Endangered in IUCN Red List.
• A 2019 report by the Ministry pointed out that power lines, especially high-voltage transmission lines with multiple overhead wires, are the most important current threat for GIBs in the Thar region, and are causing unsustainably high mortality in about 15% of their population.

Why GIB prone to collision?

• Bustards have wide sideways vision to maximize predator detection, at the cost of narrow frontal vision.
• Because of this, and a habit of scanning the ground while flying, they cannot detect power-lines ahead of them, from far.
• Being heavy fliers, they fail to manoeuvre across power lines within close distances. The combination of these traits make them vulnerable to collision with power-lines. As a result, they collide with power lines and die from the impact, injuries/trauma or electrocution
• Firefly bird diverters are flaps installed on power lines. They work as reflectors for bird species like the GIB. Birds can spot them from a distance of about 50 metres and change their path of flight to avoid collision with power lines.
• The firefly detectors have been installed along two stretches of approximately 6.5 km, selected between Chacha to Dholiya villages in the Pokhran tehsil, Rajasthan.
• The diverters are called fireflies because they look like fireflies from a distance, shining on power lines in the night.