Bird islands: On India’s bustard conservation programme

This week, at the Desert National Park in Jaisalmer, two male Great Indian Bustards were released into the wild. It was a ceremony with considerable bureaucratic pomp; the Union and the Rajasthan Environment Ministers were in attendance. The conservation plan now has 97 birds, with nine more awaiting release. Of these, 57 are captive-bred and have produced 29 chicks this year and 24 last year. These are notable numbers for a species with a population of around 120 that has teetered on the brink of extinction for nearly half a century. It is worth recounting the bird’s conservation travails. Ornithologist Salim Ali wanted it as the national bird, so that protection would follow; the Indian Board for Wildlife chose the peacock instead. Numbering about 1,260 in 1969, it dipped to 600 by 2000, and 140-175 in Rajasthan by the 2010s. Hunters, royal ones included, prized the bird, with shooting reportedly lasting into the late 1970s. The rise of irrigation in Rajasthan led to the grasslands, which were once dismissed as ‘wastelands,’ give way to irrigated, pesticide-soaked fields and roads making the bird more vulnerable. The most recent threat came in the form of high-tension power lines. As a heavy bird, the bustard tends to fly at the same height as power lines and has poor vision. The Supreme Court in 2021 ordered that low-voltage lines in priority habitats be underground. After opprobrium from renewable energy companies, on the grounds that this compromised the economics of solar power, the Court modified the order requiring that only a subset of the power lines — those part of the bird’s ‘critical’ habitat — be made underground.While the cultural links of the ‘Godawan’ – the bird’s local name – to Rajasthan’s habitat are now part of government and private marketing efforts, there are several other birds that are not as fortunate. Nearly 1,256 bird species, about 11.5% of the world’s total, are classified as threatened. Skylark numbers have fallen nearly 80% and Indian rollers 30% in 12 years. India’s conservation policy is captive to symbolism. A tigress from Valmiki flown to Buxa; African cheetahs in enclosures; Gir’s lions, confined to Saurashtra and straying into human habitations stoking conflict; the Delhi Ridge, being planted with peepal and banyan that ecologists say do not belong to its dry ecology. The conservation ethos — on paper emphasising coexistence between the wild and human — is practically promoting islands and African-style reserves. These have merits but populations that thrive inside walls overflow into villages and fields, as India’s challenges with elephants show. Landscapes, not species, ought to be the unit of conservation. Published - October 06, 2026 12:10 am IST