PUNE: A houbara bustard bred in the United Arab Emirates has been rescued from the coastal Sindhudurg district in Maharashtra, officials said.
The bird is in good health and it would be released in the desert area of Rajasthan or Gujarat, the winter habitat of these birds, they said.
Local Range Forest Officer Rajendra Ghunakikar on Saturday said, "A farmer at Mundage village in Devgad tehsil spotted an exotic-looking bird with a ring on its leg on Thursday evening and alerted forest officials. We went there and took it in our custody."
The bird is currently kept in a facility at Kankavali in the district and is in fine health, he added.
Sujit Narawade, the assistant director and coordinator at the Bombay Natural History Society, said some institutes in the UAE breed these birds in captivity and release them in large numbers as part of conservation efforts.
"These birds generally migrate to the Thar and Kutch deserts every winter from the Middle East. Sometimes a bird or two stray from the flock and fly to the coastal region of Konkan," said Narawade, who is also the project coordinator of Conservation of Great Indian Bustard and Lesser Florican.
"The houbara bustard found in Sindhudurg had a ring and colour band which provided information about its origin. When we contacted the National Avian Resource Centre in Abu Dhabi, they confirmed that the bird was from a flock released by them," he said.
They also advised that it should be released in the desert region of Gujarat or Rajasthan, he added.
Deputy Conservator of Forests S Navakishore Reddy said that they were in talks with forest officials in the two states and will soon decide where it should be released.