MoEF calls for action plan to save Great Indian Bustards

“Currently,not more than 300 individuals of GIB are left in the world,with no known breeding population outside India,” the ministry said in a set of guidelines issued last week,adding the species has been listed as “critically endangered” by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) — the world’s foremost body of conservation naturalists.

GIBs gather in grassland patches to breed during mid-summer and monsoon,nesting in open areas and laying one or,at most,two eggs per year,the IUCN says,adding that it “probably makes local and possibly long distance nomadic movements” during other months.

In Gujarat,the GIB is found in and around the Bustard Sanctuary in Kutch district. A 2012 assessment by the IUCN says there are now “fewer than 20 birds at densities of 0.05 per sq km in about 400 sq km suitable habitat” in Kutch.

The MoEF has identified Kutch’s Abdasa taluka as the site for conservation measures directed at the GIB. Revenue and gauchar land falling under 16 villages,where the birds breed,are to be acquired on a war footing because it is “being encroached and developed illegally”.

The ministry said this “breeding refuge” is to be fenced off and 10 watchers posted nearby during the four breeding months. Dogs and cats (which predate on the birds) are to be “captured,removed or eliminated”,as are high tension power lines,highways,wind turbines and pesticide-dependent agriculture,it added. The MoEF has earmarked Rs 414 lakh to implement these measures that will involve the forest and veterinary departments,a research organisation and NGOs.

Meanwhile,the Lesser Florican population “is restricted to a few pockets in western and south-central India,” the MoEF notes,estimating less than 2,500 surviving individuals. The ministry lists its existence in Gujarat at Velavadar (Bhavnagar district),Abdasa and Rampar (Kutch),Gondal (Rajkot) and Amreli district.

The IUCN lists the species as ‘endangered’.

The MoEF has asked the forest department to prioritise the fencing-off of five enclosures covering a total 50 sq kms in Abdasa and Rampar,and appoint 18 watchers to make sure there is no trespassing during the breeding season.

Apart from further research on the species,the MoEF has also advised tall grass species such as the invasive prosopis juliflora be removed,and predators such as cats and dogs be captured and eliminated during that period.