Editorial-06/10/2026
Bird Islands: On India’s Bustard Conservation Programme
Introduction
- The Great Indian Bustard (GIB), or Ardeotis nigriceps, is among India’s most threatened birds and one of the heaviest flying birds in the world.
- Once found across large parts of India’s grasslands, scrublands and semi-arid regions, the species is now restricted mainly to fragmented habitats in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
- Its decline is a warning that India’s grasslands have been systematically misunderstood and neglected.
- For decades, grasslands were officially treated as “wastelands”—empty spaces available for mining, industry, urbanisation, plantations, solar parks and transmission infrastructure.
- The bustard’s crisis is therefore not merely a wildlife issue. It reflects a larger conflict between ecological security, infrastructure expansion, renewable energy and the rights of local communities.
- India’s bustard conservation programme has created hope through scientific breeding, habitat protection, tracking and community participation. However, conservation breeding alone cannot save the species unless its natural habitat is protected.
Why the Bustard Matters?
- The Great Indian Bustard is an indicator of the health of India’s open natural ecosystems.
- Grasslands and drylands support a wide range of species, including floricans, wolves, blackbuck, chinkara, desert foxes, raptors, reptiles and numerous pollinators.
- Protecting bustard habitat can therefore conserve an entire ecological community rather than a single bird.
- The bird also has cultural and regional importance. It is the state bird of Rajasthan and occupies an important place in local traditions and landscapes.
- Its presence indicates that grasslands retain adequate food, nesting sites, insect populations and ecological balance.
- The loss of the bustard would be a major ecological and moral failure because its decline has largely been caused by human activities rather than natural processes.
Causes of Decline
- The principal threat is the conversion and fragmentation of grassland habitat.
- Open landscapes have been diverted for agriculture, mining, roads, industries, military installations, solar parks and wind-energy projects.
- The classification of grasslands as wastelands has enabled their transfer for non-ecological purposes without adequate assessment.
- Power transmission lines are especially dangerous. Bustards are large, heavy birds with limited frontal vision and they often fly at heights that bring them into collision with overhead wires.
- Collisions and electrocution can kill adult birds, including breeding individuals. Given the species’ low reproductive rate, the death of even a few adults can have a serious effect on population recovery.
- Wind turbines, roads and other infrastructure also disturb breeding areas and fragment movement corridors.
- Historically, hunting contributed to the species’ decline. Although legal protection has improved, poaching and disturbance remain concerns.
- Bustard eggs and chicks face predation from foxes, mongooses, monitor lizards, dogs and other animals.
- Intensive farming and pesticide use reduce insects and alter the vegetation on which the bird depends.
- Climate variability, drought and the increasing pressure on dryland ecosystems may further reduce food and nesting opportunities.
India’s Conservation Response
- India launched a species-recovery approach for the Great Indian Bustard and other bustards, including the Lesser Florican and Bengal Florican.
- Since 2016, the central government, State forest departments and the Wildlife Institute of India have worked on conservation breeding and habitat improvement.
- The programme has focused on two complementary strategies:
- In-situ conservation, which protects birds in their natural habitat.
- Ex-situ conservation, which breeds birds in controlled facilities for possible future release.
- Conservation breeding centres have been established in Rajasthan, particularly around Ramdevra and Sam in Jaisalmer, while facilities for the Lesser Florican have been developed at Sorsan.
- Scientists collect eggs from the wild, incubate them artificially and rear chicks under controlled conditions.
- This method protects eggs from predators and improves hatching success.
- The programme has also developed expertise in artificial incubation, chick-rearing, husbandry and artificial insemination.
- The next phase of the programme received an allocation of ₹56 crore. Its components include habitat development, completion and upgradation of breeding facilities, release of captive-bred birds, artificial insemination, research, tracking and post-release monitoring.
- The long-term objective is to release captive-bred birds into suitable habitats and establish a self-sustaining wild population.
- In October 2026, two captive-bred Great Indian Bustards were released into the wild in Rajasthan, marking a significant transition from breeding to rewilding.
Conservation Breeding: Hope and Limitations
- Conservation breeding is an important emergency measure when a species faces imminent extinction.
- It creates a safety population and preserves genetic material that may otherwise be lost.
- It also provides scientists with an opportunity to understand breeding behaviour, nutrition, disease management and chick development.
- However, a captive population cannot substitute for a functioning natural ecosystem.
- Captive-bred birds may lack experience in avoiding predators, locating food, navigating landscapes or responding to power lines.
- Releasing them into unsuitable or unsafe landscapes would expose them to the same threats that caused the original decline.
- The success of rewilding must therefore be measured not by the number of birds bred but by their survival, movement, breeding and contribution to a stable wild population.
- Each released bird should be equipped with tracking devices where appropriate, and its behaviour should be monitored for several years.
- Genetic diversity must also be maintained. A small captive population can suffer from inbreeding, which may reduce fertility, disease resistance and adaptability.
- Conservation breeding should thus be treated as a bridge to habitat restoration, not as a permanent solution.
The Power-Line Challenge
- The conflict between bustard conservation and renewable energy development has become one of the most difficult policy questions.
- Rajasthan and Gujarat are central to India’s solar and wind-energy expansion, but they also contain the most important remaining bustard habitats.
- The Supreme Court has intervened in this conflict because power-line collisions are a direct and preventable cause of mortality.
- Earlier directions sought restrictions on overhead transmission lines in important bustard areas. In 2024, the Court modified its approach and constituted an expert process to balance species protection with renewable-energy requirements.
- The broader lesson is that climate action cannot be separated from biodiversity protection.
- Renewable energy is necessary to reduce emissions, but poorly planned renewable infrastructure can damage fragile ecosystems.
- The answer should include:
- Mapping and notifying critical bustard habitats.
- Avoiding new transmission lines in priority areas.
- Undergrounding lines wherever technically and financially feasible.
- Installing bird diverters on existing lines.
- Rerouting dangerous lines away from flight paths.
- Consolidating infrastructure into designated power corridors.
- Requiring cumulative environmental impact assessments rather than project-by-project approvals.
- The cost of mitigation should be incorporated into the cost of renewable-energy projects.
- It would be unjust to make local communities and endangered species bear the ecological costs of national energy expansion.
Protecting the Grassland Landscape
- Bustard protection requires a change in India’s land-use policy.
- Grasslands must be recognised as ecosystems with their own biodiversity, carbon-storage capacity, water cycles and livelihood value.
- They should not be viewed as degraded forests or vacant land awaiting commercial use.
- Government agencies must prepare accurate grassland maps and prevent the diversion of important habitats.
- Habitat restoration should focus on native vegetation rather than inappropriate tree plantations.
- Planting trees in open grasslands can damage the very ecosystem that supports bustards and other dryland species.
- Grazing must be managed scientifically instead of being eliminated indiscriminately.
- Traditional pastoral communities often possess valuable knowledge about seasonal grazing, water sources and animal movement.
- Their participation can make conservation more effective and socially legitimate.
- Local residents should receive compensation and incentives for protecting nests, reporting poaching and reducing disturbance.
- Conservation reserves and community reserves can supplement national parks by protecting larger landscapes beyond formal protected-area boundaries.
Institutional and Administrative Gaps
- India’s bustard programme has good scientific components but suffers from fragmented governance.
- The Environment Ministry, State forest departments, energy agencies, revenue authorities, defence establishments and local governments often plan independently.
- A transmission line, highway or solar park approved by one agency can undermine years of wildlife protection by another.
- A landscape-level authority or empowered coordination mechanism is needed for priority bustard areas.
- Conservation targets should be measurable and publicly reported.
- These targets should include:
- Annual population estimates.
- Adult and juvenile survival.
- Number of breeding pairs.
- Mortality caused by power lines.
- Habitat under effective protection.
- Number of eggs hatched and chicks surviving.
- Success of released birds.
- Participation and benefits for local communities.
- Independent scientific review is essential to prevent official success being measured only by expenditure or the number of captive birds.
- Conservation funds should support field protection, land management, research and local livelihoods—not only construction of breeding centres.
Lessons from the Programme
- The bustard programme demonstrates that conservation requires both urgency and patience.
- Emergency measures such as captive breeding may prevent extinction, but ecological recovery takes decades.
- Species protection cannot succeed if habitat destruction continues outside protected areas.
- Technology is valuable, but it cannot replace political commitment and sound land-use decisions.
- The programme also shows the importance of indigenous and community knowledge.
- Local people are more likely to support conservation when they see direct benefits through employment, tourism, compensation and improved services.
- Another lesson is that policy must recognise ecological trade-offs early.
- Environmental clearance should not be a procedural formality after a project has already been designed. It should influence where and how the project is located.
- Finally, the bustard crisis demonstrates that biodiversity conservation and development must not be treated as mutually exclusive.
- Development can be made less destructive through careful siting, mitigation, transparent planning and strict enforcement.
Way Forward
- The immediate priority should be to secure the remaining wild population and prevent further mortality.
- The government should identify high-risk power lines and install diverters or underground them on a time-bound basis.
- Critical breeding and feeding habitats must receive legal and administrative protection.
- New infrastructure should be prohibited in core bustard habitats unless there is no alternative and strict mitigation is guaranteed.
- Captive breeding should continue, but releases must occur only after habitat quality and threat levels have been scientifically assessed.
- A genetic management plan should guide the captive population.
- Released birds must be monitored through telemetry, field surveys and periodic population assessments.
- Community-based conservation should be expanded through local conservation committees, compensation schemes and livelihood programmes.
- Grassland restoration should use native species and maintain the ecological balance between grazing, agriculture and wildlife.
- Conservation education should be introduced in schools and villages located near bustard habitats.
- India should also cooperate with international and regional institutions because migratory and historically connected bird populations do not follow administrative boundaries.
Conclusion
- The Great Indian Bustard stands at the intersection of India’s environmental challenges: habitat loss, unplanned infrastructure, renewable-energy expansion, weak land-use classification and insufficient community participation.
- The recent release of captive-bred birds is an encouraging achievement, but it is only the beginning of the more difficult task of restoring a viable wild population.
- India must avoid celebrating captive breeding while allowing natural habitats to disappear.
- The bird will survive only when grasslands are treated as living ecosystems, power infrastructure is redesigned, local communities become conservation partners and development decisions account for ecological limits.
- Saving the bustard is not simply about preserving a rare bird. It is about protecting the open landscapes, livelihoods and ecological processes that sustain life in India’s drylands.
- The measure of success will be reached when bustards can breed and fly safely in the wild without depending on permanent human assistance.
