2 captive-bred Great Indian Bustards released in national park

Why in the News

For the first time, Great Indian Bustards (GIBs) bred in captivity have been returned to the wild, as conservation moves from raising birds in enclosures to rewilding them. The Union Environment Minister and Wildlife Institute of India (WII) scientists released two males into Desert National Park, Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, under Project GIB. Only about 150 GIBs are left in the wild.

What is Project GIB, and why breed the bird in captivity?

1. What it is: Project GIB is a long-term recovery programme for the critically endangered GIB. It runs two conservation breeding centres in Jaisalmer, at Ramdevra and Sam.
2. Why it began: The wild population kept falling, so the centres raise a founder population, a starter stock for rewilding. It works like a seed bank kept for replanting a forest.
3. How breeding works: From 2019, eggs collected from the wild were incubated artificially and the chicks hand-reared. These hand-reared birds later mated in captivity.
4. Habitat restoration: The Rajasthan forest department has fenced about 200 sq km of grassland enclosures inside the park. WII has tracked tagged birds remotely for years (telemetry), and this data identifies the enclosures as prime breeding habitat.
5. The takeaway: Captive breeding matters only if the birds survive in the wild, which this first release begins to test.

What has the release achieved?

1. First rewilding: Two male birds were released at Sam, the first of 11 birds earmarked for release.
2. Captive stock: The centres hold 98 captive-bred birds, about 86 of them kept for captive reproduction.
3. Breeding output: Captive reproduction yields more live chicks each year, with 29 born in 2026 against 24 in 2025.
4. Reintroduction protocols: The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change says the release will help develop and refine protocols for returning captive-bred birds to natural habitat.

Why does the GIB matter beyond the species?

1. Grassland conservation: The GIB depends on open grassland, so protecting it protects an ecosystem often treated as wasteland. The Minister also linked it to land degradation neutrality, a goal where restored land offsets newly degraded land.
2. Migratory stopover: GIB habitat is a resting stop for birds on the Central Asian Flyway. This migratory corridor crosses 30 countries from North to South Asia, linking the Arctic and Indian Oceans.

Challenges

1. Power line collisions: GIBs have poor frontal vision and fly into overhead transmission lines. Eg. The Supreme Court has heard cases on undergrounding lines in GIB habitat since 2021.
2. Untested survival: Hand-reared birds have not learned predator avoidance or foraging from wild parents, so post-release survival is unknown.
3. Narrow genetic base: A tiny wild population limits the genetic diversity of the founder stock.
4. Grassland diversion: Open grasslands are converted to farming and renewable energy parks. Eg. Solar and wind projects in the Thar.

Way Forward

1. Post-release tracking: WII should tag every released bird and publish survival data before scaling up releases.
2. Line mitigation: Power utilities should underground lines or fit bird diverters in priority GIB habitat.
3. Grassland recognition: Rajasthan should record grasslands as ecosystems, not wasteland, in land records.
4. Phased releases: Release the remaining earmarked birds in stages, adjusting protocols after each cohort.

Conclusion

Project GIB has moved from breeding numbers to the harder test of survival in the wild. Whether the released males survive, settle in the fenced enclosures and pair with wild birds is the metric to watch.

Back2Basics: Great Indian Bustard

1. Protection status: Critically Endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List and listed in Schedule I of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972.
2. Identity: One of the heaviest flying birds, known locally as Godawan, and the State bird of Rajasthan.
3. Habitat: Dry grasslands and scrub, with the largest population in Rajasthan, mainly in Desert National Park.
4. Threats: Overhead power lines, windmills, noise and changes in landscape and cultivation.

Matching Previous Year Question

“[2024] Consider the following statements: Statement-I: The Indian Flying Fox is placed under the “vermin” category in the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972. Statement-II: The Indian Flying Fox feeds on the blood of other animals. Which one of the following is correct in respect of the above statements? (a) Both statement I and Statement II are correct and statement II explains statement I (b) Both Statement-I and Statement-II are correct, but Statement-II does not explain Statement-I (c) Staement- I is correct , but Statement II is incorrect* (d) Statement-I is incorrect, but Statement-II is correct ANSWER:”