Is the Great Indian Bustard on the verge of local extinction?

Is the Great Indian Bustard on the verge of local extinction? Wildlife authorities have not spotted it for the last couple of years at the Rollapadu Wildlife Sanctuary in Nandyal district. However, scientists at the conservation breeding centre at Pokhran in Rajasthan achieved a major milestone when captive-reared birds bred first time naturally in 2023.

The Great Indian Bustard (GIB) has not been spotted at the Rollapadu Wildlife Sanctuary in Nandyal district of Andhra Pradesh and its surrounding areas for the last couple of years, which is an indication that the bird is at risk of local extinction.

As per records, the migratory birds usually stay in the sanctuary for a few days.

“We have not spotted the GIB in the area. We have been conducting regular surveys to identify its presence. But, in the last couple of years, we have not noticed it. Organisations independently working on its conservation too have not noticed the birds,” Alan Chong Teron, District Forest Officer (DFO), Wildlife Management, Atmakur, told The Hindu.

“It is a critically endangered bird numbering fewer than 140 globally,” Tushna Karkaria, Project Scientist and Veterinarian at the GIB conservation breeding centre at Pokhran in Rajasthan, told this correspondent during his visit to the facility as a part of the Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra (VBSY) organised by the Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

“A majority of the GIB population left in the wild is in the arid grasslands of Thar, Rajasthan (about 120), distributed in the Desert National Park and the Pokhran Field Firing Range. The population in the other range States are 1-6 individuals each,” Dr. Tushna said.

An agreement had been signed in 2018 between the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC), the Rajasthan Forest Department, and the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) to start conservation breeding of the GIB and preserve the remaining population through scientific research and management, she said.

International Fund for Houbara Conservation (IFHC), Abu Dhabi, was roped in as technical partner as it had successfully bred other bustard species.