Context: Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change announced that Project Great Indian Bustard (GIB) has successfully added three more chicks to its conservation breeding program.
About The Great Indian Bustard:
What It Is?
- The Great Indian Bustard (Ardeotis nigriceps) is a large, terrestrial bird native to the Indian subcontinent. It is one of the heaviest flying birds in the world and serves as an flagship indicator species for the health of grassland ecosystems.
Habitat and Distribution:
- Primary Stronghold: The vast majority of the surviving wild population is restricted to the state of Rajasthan, particularly within the Desert National Park near Jaisalmer.
- Fragmented Pockets: Smaller, highly fragmented populations persist in dry grasslands and scrub forest biomes across Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh.
- Preferred Ecosystem: It favors wide, open, semi-arid grasslands, uncultivated agro-pastoral landscapes, and low scrub plains with minimal human disturbance. It avoids dense forests and intensively irrigated agricultural lands.
Conservation Status:
- IUCN Red List: Classified as Critically Endangered.
- Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 (India): Listed under Schedule I, granting it the highest level of legal protection against hunting and exploitation.
- CITES: Listed under Appendix I, prohibiting international commercial trade.
Key Characteristics:
- Impressive Stature: Stands nearly one meter tall with a horizontal body structure, long bare legs, and an ostrich-like appearance. Adult males can weigh up to 15–18 kg.
- Distinct Plumage: Features a prominent black crown on the head, a pale neck, and a brownish body accented by a black breast band that becomes more distinct in males during the breeding season.
- Opportunistic Omnivore: Feeds on a varied diet consisting of insects (like beetles and grasshoppers), rodents, small lizards, snakes, grass seeds, and ground-growing agricultural crops.
- Low Reproductive Rate: Females typically lay only a single egg per year directly on the open ground. This lack of arboreal nesting makes their eggs highly vulnerable to predators like foxes, feral dogs, and crows.
- Poor Frontal Vision: Due to limited forward line-of-sight, the birds are highly susceptible to colliding with high-voltage overhead power lines running through their grassland habitats—currently the leading cause of their mortality.
