GREAT INDIAN BUSTARDS - ENVIRONMENT
News: Easing
an albatross off the neck of the Great Indian Bustard
What's in the news?
● A
Supreme Court appointed-committee
has recommended that, in order to protect the endangered Great Indian Bustard,
close to 800 km, or about 10% of the length of proposed power lines in the Thar
and Kutch deserts of Rajasthan and Gujarat should be re-routed or made to go underground.
Key takeaways:
● The
nearly 7,200 km of overhead lines
are meant to transfer solar power into the grid but existing lines have been
harming Great Indian Bustards, which have been dying by colliding into them or
getting electrocuted. Only about 150 of these birds are still left, most of
them in Jaisalmer in Rajasthan.
● If
power companies found undergrounding technically infeasible, they could
approach a Supreme Court-appointed three-member committee for permission to go
ahead with overhead lines with modifications.
○ These
modifications include installing “bird diverters”, which are flaps installed on
power lines that work like reflectors and are visible to the flying birds from
about 50 meters away, giving them a chance to swerve out of the path of a power
line.
Great Indian Bustard:
GIBs are one of the heaviest flying
birds in India. It has a frontal vision that makes it hard to avoid
collisions.
Protection status:
● IUCN
Red List: Critically Endangered
● CITES:
Appendix I
● India
Wildlife Protection Act: Schedule I
Habitat: Flagship species
of Grassland - arid and semi-arid
grasslands.
Range: Confined mostly
to Rajasthan and Gujarat. Small
populations occur in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
Threats:
Collision/electrocution with power transmission lines, hunting (still prevalent
in Pakistan), habitat loss and alteration as a result of widespread
agricultural expansion.
Conservation Efforts:
1. Project Great Indian Bustard
- It was launched in Rajasthan
including constructing breeding enclosures for the species and developing
infrastructure to reduce human pressure on habitats.
2. State Action Plan for Resident Bustards Recovery
Programme - The Indian Government has provided
financial support to conservation actions for this species in some regions and
in association with several NGOs and experts has developed guidelines for the
recovery programme.
3. Mitigating Powerline Mortality
- In April 2021, the Supreme Court mandated that all power lines in both the
‘potential’ and the ‘priority’ habitats of the bird be laid underground. It
would ensure the long-term conservation of the species and the successful
reintroduction of captive-bred birds in the future.
4. Bird diverters, colorful discs
meant to alert birds in flight from a distance to avoid collision, have been
installed.