Context: The Supreme Court panel has proposed power corridors to reroute overhead power lines in Bustard habitats in Gujarat and Rajasthan. The idea behind creating power corridors is to ensure that birds, especially in high-risk habitats are not forced to repeatedly navigate through a maze of criss-crossing power lines.
Relevance of the Topic: Prelims: Key facts about Great Indian Bustard.
Great Indian Bustard
- A large bird of the bustard family, it is one of the heaviest flying birds in the world.
- Physical characteristics and behaviour:
- Black crown on the forehead contrasting with the pale neck and head.
- The body is brownish and the wings are marked with black, brown and grey.
- Males and females generally grow to the same height and weight but males have larger black crowns and a black band across the breast.
- They breed mostly during the monsoon season when females lay a single egg on open ground.
- Males play no role in the incubation and care of the young, which remain with the mother till the next breeding season.
- They feed on grass seeds, insects like grasshoppers and beetles, and sometimes even small rodents and reptiles.
- Habitat:
- Bustards generally favour flat open landscapes with minimal visual obstruction and disturbance, therefore adapt well in grasslands.
- They avoid grasses taller than themselves and dense scrub like thickets.
- Distribution: Its population is confined mostly to Rajasthan and Gujarat. Small populations occur in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
Threats
The estimated population of the large bird- once considered a candidate for national bird- is below 150.
- Owing to its poor vision, the GIB is at high risk of injury and death due to collisions with high tension electric wires.
- Hunting and Occasional poaching for eggs outside Protected Areas
- Fast moving vehicles
- Free-ranging dogs in villages.
- Habitat loss and alteration as a result of widespread agricultural expansion and mechanised farming.
- Infrastructural development such as irrigation, roads, electric poles, as well as mining and industrialisation.
Conservation Status:
- IUCN Status: Critically Endangered
- Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972: Schedule I
- CITES: Appendix-I
- Declared as the state bird of Rajasthan.
Conservation Efforts by Government of India
- Listed in Schedule-I of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, thereby accorded the highest degree of legal protection from hunting.
- Important habitats of Great Indian Bustards are designated as National Parks/ sanctuaries for their better protection.
- Identified for conservation efforts under the component ‘Species Recovery Programme’ of the Centrally Sponsored Scheme- Development of Wildlife Habitats.
- Conservation breeding has been undertaken in collaboration with Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra Forest Departments with technical support of Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun.
- A satellite conservation breeding facility has been established at Sam, Jaisalmer, Rajasthan.