News Excerpt:
The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has approved Rs 56 crore for the next phase of conservation efforts for the Great Indian Bustard (GIB) and Lesser Florican.
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- This plan includes habitat development, in-situ conservation, completion of the conservation breeding center, release of captive-bred birds, and other initiatives.
About Conservation Program
- The conservation program, running since 2016, aims for the long-term recovery of the critically endangered GIB and Lesser Florican.
- Currently, around 140 GIBs and fewer than 1,000 Lesser Floricans survive in the wild.
Targets for Conservation
- The first component targets the completion of the conservation breeding center (CBC) in Jaisalmer’s Ramdevra, development of the Sorsan Lesser Florican facility, preparatory work for releasing captive-bred birds, release of GIBs in Rajasthan and other range states, post-release monitoring, and artificial insemination.
- The second component focuses on in-situ conservation of GIBs in other range states such as Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh.
- This will be implemented by Wildlife Institute of India’s (WII) along with state governments, with a budget of Rs 43.68 crore.
Population Estimation
- Between 2024-2026, WII will undertake GIB population estimation in Jaisalmer and its range states and conduct a rangewide population estimation of the Lesser Florican.
- Rewilding will not begin before 2027; until then, WII plans to collect two to four eggs of the GIB and six to ten eggs of the Lesser Florican each year.
- The 2024-2029 phase will also target the development and implementation of artificial insemination techniques as a backup to captive-breeding conservation.
Collaboration
- WII has been collaborating with the Abu Dhabi-based International Fund for Houbara Conservation on this.
- The two species have faced severe decline due to hunting, habitat loss, and predation of eggs by other animals.
- Additionally, overhead power lines pose a significant threat, with a 2017-18 study estimating the deaths of 88,000 birds annually.
National Bustard Recovery Plan
- Conservation plans began in 2013 under the National Bustard Recovery Plan, which later evolved into the Bustard Recovery Project in 2016.
- In July 2018, a tripartite agreement was signed between MoEFCC, the Rajasthan Forest Department, and WII.
- As part of this project, two GIB conservation breeding centers and one Lesser Florican center are operational in Rajasthan’s Sam, Ramdevra, and Sorsan.
- The team at Sam and Ramdevra has built a founder population by collecting GIB eggs from the wild, which were incubated and hatched artificially.
- Currently, there are 40 GIBs in the two CBCs. For the Lesser Florican, there are seven individuals at the Sorsan facility, three males and four females.
Supreme Court’s supervision
- The Supreme Court is monitoring the GIB and Lesser Florican conservation program, and a petition seeking protection of the two species is pending.
- Earlier, the SC had ordered burying power transmission lines in GIB habitats in Rajasthan and Gujarat in 2021 but recalled its order in 2024 after the Centre submitted that the exercise would be expensive and impractical.
- The SC also tasked an expert committee to study the issue.
