PIB TrackerTen years of breeding, and two bustards go back tomorrow
A pillar-less aviary 160 metres long was built at Ramdevra for Rs 9.25 crore so captive-bred Great Indian Bustards could develop flight muscles first. The release itself is the day before the release.
What happened
- The Union Environment Minister and Rajasthan's Chief Minister initiated the process for releasing two captive-bred Great Indian Bustards, the release itself to be undertaken tomorrow at Desert National Park, Jaisalmer.
- They reviewed the breeding centres at Ramdevra and Sam and inaugurated a newly developed Rewilding Aviary.
- The aviary measures 160 m x 64 m x 14 m, built by the Rajasthan Forest Department on a sanctioned budget of Rs 9.25 crore from the State.
- It is pillar-less, to give captive-bred birds unobstructed space to develop flight muscles and exhibit natural behaviour.
- The transition marked is from conservation breeding to rewilding and augmentation, after a decade of work.
For Prelims
- The Great Indian Bustard: critically endangered on the IUCN Red List, listed in Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, and the State bird of Rajasthan. Its stronghold is the Thar, with the Desert National Park near Jaisalmer the core.
- Why it is dying: the bird has poor frontal vision and is heavy and slow to manoeuvre, so overhead power lines are the principal mortality source - which is why renewable energy transmission in the Thar is litigated against bustard conservation.
- Why one egg matters: the bustard lays a single egg in a season, on the ground, with no nest. A species with that reproductive rate cannot absorb adult mortality, which is what makes conservation breeding necessary rather than optional.
- Conservation breeding against rewilding: breeding establishes a captive population; rewilding returns individuals to the wild. The interval between them is where most programmes fail, because a captive-bred bird has neither the musculature nor the behaviour to survive.
- The soft release: a staged return - acclimatisation in a facility within the habitat, then release with support and monitoring - as against a hard release straight into the wild.
- Umbrella species: one whose habitat requirements are large enough that protecting it protects the ecosystem around it. For the bustard that ecosystem is open natural grassland, which Indian land classification has historically recorded as wasteland.
- The Central Asian Flyway: one of the world's major migratory bird routes, running from the Arctic to the Indian Ocean across 30 countries; India adopted a National Action Plan for its conservation.
- The two-State programme: Rajasthan runs the breeding centres at Ramdevra and Sam; Gujarat runs a jumpstart initiative at Naliya, Kutch, where the Minister on 14 September reported a chick from a swapped viable egg surviving past three months in the wild.
For UPSC: The most advanced species-recovery programme in the country reaching its decisive stage, and a document with a cost and a dimension attached. Use it on conservation of critically endangered species, on grasslands as habitat rather than wasteland, on the renewable energy against conservation conflict in the Thar, and on Centre-State conservation partnerships, where Rajasthan funded the aviary and the Union supplied the science.
What it is NOT: No population figure appears anywhere - not for the wild population, not for the captive one, and not for the number of birds bred over the decade, which is the single number that would say whether ten years produced a viable breeding stock. No count of how many birds will follow these two, and no timetable. No survival target for the released birds and no monitoring method described, though a pilot release is explicitly said to be generating protocols. Nothing on power line mitigation in the release area, which is the principal mortality risk the birds will face. And no total programme cost - only the aviary's Rs 9.25 crore.
For Mains
Syllabus: GS3.14 · GS2.2 · Linkage L1
Anchor
Ten years of captive breeding reached the point of release. The Union Environment Minister and Rajasthan's Chief Minister initiated the process for returning two captive-bred Great Indian Bustards to Desert National Park at Jaisalmer, the release itself due the following day - the transition from establishing a conservation-breeding population to rewilding the species in its own habitat.
Substantiation (data)
The infrastructure is the substantiation. The Rewilding Aviary at Ramdevra measures 160 by 64 by 14 metres and cost Rs 9.25 crore from the Rajasthan government, built through a State construction corporation in consultation with Ministry and Wildlife Institute scientists. It is deliberately pillar-less, so that birds bred in captivity have unobstructed space to develop flight muscles and natural behaviour before they leave.
Position
That aviary is the part worth understanding. The hard problem in any captive-breeding programme is not producing birds but producing birds that can survive, and a creature raised in an enclosure has neither the musculature nor the behaviour for a desert. Building a gymnasium before a release is what distinguishes a recovery programme from a zoo, and it is the same logic as Buxa releasing 800 chital before one tiger.
Problematisation
What the release does not contain is any population figure. Not the wild population, not the captive one, and not the number of birds bred across the decade - which is the only number that would say whether ten years produced a viable stock or a fragile one. Two birds is a pilot by the release's own description, and no count or timetable is given for those that follow.
Counterpoint
The larger silence is about what the birds are being released into. The principal cause of bustard mortality is collision with overhead power lines, in a landscape that is also India's best solar and wind resource - a conflict that has reached the Supreme Court. Nothing in this release says whether the lines around Desert National Park have been undergrounded or fitted with diverters.
Conclusion
A decade of work, a purpose-built aviary and two birds is an honest ratio for this species, which lays one egg a season and cannot absorb adult losses. Whether it becomes a recovery depends on the two things the release leaves out - how many birds exist, and whether the power lines in the Thar have been dealt with.
Deploys into: Conservation of critically endangered species · Grasslands as habitat rather than wasteland · Renewable energy against conservation in the Thar · Centre-State conservation partnerships
Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change · 2026-10-03 · PRID 2318629 · PIB source ↗