BHOPAL: Plans are afoot to reintroduce the critically endangered great Indian bustard (GIB) in Madhya Pradesh more than three decades after it disappeared from the central Indian state due to unchecked agricultural expansion and poaching.
The bird with the horizontal body and long bare legs is also the state bird of neighbouring Rajasthan and is counted among the heaviest of flying birds. The Madhya Pradesh Forest Department has identified two sites—the Ghatigaon Sanctuary in the Gwalior-Chambal region and the Gandhi Sagar Sanctuary in western MP’s Mandsaur-Neemuch districts—which hold promise for the bird’s reintroduction.
L Krishnamoorthy, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (APCCF-Wildlife), MP Forest Department, said, “The reintroduction of GIBs in MP is going to be a long and organised multi-stage process. The first phase will begin with habitat management, particularly through protection of grasslands in the Ghatigaon Sanctuary.
Only once the ideal and protected habitat is ready, we’ll go ahead with the next step in reintroducing the GIB.” The project was discussed prominently at the recent review meeting chaired by Chief Minister Mohan Yadav.
It may be recalled that Gwalior’s Ghatigaon Sanctuary was established in 1981, particularly for conserving the critically endangered bird. However, the bird’s crucial habitats within the Ghatigaon and Karera sanctuaries were gradually converted into intensive agricultural farmlands and subjected to mechanised farming, depriving the bird of its natural nesting and foraging grounds.
There are fewer than 150 great Indian bustards surviving in the wild in India, with most individuals concentrated in the Thar Desert of Rajasthan, with fragmented populations in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra.
Fewer than 150 in India
Reportedly, there are fewer than 150 great Indian bustards surviving in the wild in India, with most individuals concentrated in Rajasthan’s Thar Desert, with only tiny populations in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra, etc.