Peninsular India Is On The Verge Of Losing Its Rare Black Crown, The Great Indian Bustard

Peninsular India:

The Great Indian Bustards are the heaviest of the low-flying large birds with a black crown on forehead with a contrasting pale neck and head. They are also called as the “Sonchiriya.” They used to flourish on the dry plains of the Indian subcontinent, yet have rapidly declined from a 1000 in 1970’s to a few 100-200 today. They were declared as “critically endangered” by the International Union for Conservation for Nature (IUCN) in July 2013, hence triggering a sense of responsibility among the administrators and wildlife conservationists of India to look into the urgent matter. Only after the unfortunate announcement, India is now the only habitat for Great Indian Bustard.

In the words of Nigel Collar from BirdLife International, a global NGO, “…India cannot now afford to lose a single bird or egg in this cause. The only option is to implement a rigorous programme of habitat conservation and associated management measures to give the species the chance to increase its numbers in the wild.”

The bird can olny be seen in Rajasthan, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.

The Ballari district of Karnataka is the second breeding ground after Rajasthan and the only in the peninsular India, for the critically endangered Indian Bustard. Recently, there have been no sightings of the documented GIB in Sirguppa region of Ballari district, Karnataka, even though they were accorded the highest protection as “Schedule-1 species” under India’s Wildlife Protection Act.

Conservationists accredited the lack of sightings by Karnataka Wildlife Department to the constructions of two watchtowers and two anti-poaching centers, both structures are 3-4 floor buildings.

In the words of M.K. Ranjitsinh, former director of Wildlife Preservation of India, and one of the architects behind Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972, said, “…the bustards are nowhere to be seen ever since officials got multi-storied watch-towers and anti-poaching cells constructed in the middle of the breeding area of Siruguppa. Despite objections raised by scientists, experts and conservationists from all over, the department is still continuing with the construction…if the Great Indian Bustard (GIB) goes extinct, whom will the wildlife department of Karnataka save?”

Mr. Ranjit is also the one of India’s most prominent wildlife conservationists. It was due to his petition in 2019 that a high-powered committee headed by chairman Asad Rahmani,former director of the Bombay Natural History Society, was formed by the Supreme Court on July 15, 2019. The committee was tasked with framing and implementing an emergency response plan for protecting the GIB. He said that the apex court would evaluate the current developments in Ballari.

Though the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Ajai Misra, said that the construction was necessary to protect the wild animals from poachers. To which Ranjitsinh answered saying that the structure could be single-floor in design. The structures need not have been built right in the middle of the bustard’s habitat; the bird has already indicated a high mortality rate by colliding with high-rise structures, high-tension electricity lines and windmills in the country, due to their poor frontal vision.

Supporting the disturbing evidence, S.K. Arun, honorary wildlife warden of Ballari said, “GIBs being low flying birds with poor frontal vision, prefer open grassland or farmland. A large number of their deaths have been reported for colliding with windmills, power lines or high rise intrusions during their flight. So they leave the area after it gets disturbed with such infrastructure. Being shy, they also avoid human presence.”

Though it’s not all hopeless, as explained by Sutirtha Dutta, a scientist with Wildlife Institute of India, that there is a possibility that GIBs may return, if they manage to survive, on the restoration of habitat without much delay, since are known to have traditional linkages with their habitat. They have a strong attachment to the areas they use and keep coming back there until the area becomes completely unsuitable.