The Great Indian Bustard (Ghorad)

Source: News on Air

Context:

The GIB (Ardeotis nigriceps) is the flagship species of India’s dry grasslands. It is often compared to an ostrich due to its size and ground-dwelling nature, yet it remains one of the heaviest flying birds on Earth.

Conservation Status and Legal Protection

The GIB is currently one of the most endangered birds in the world.

• IUCN Red List: Critically Endangered.
• Population: Fewer than 150 individuals remain in the wild.
• Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972: Schedule I (Highest protection).
• CITES: Appendix I.

Physical and Behavioral Traits

• Heavyweight Flyer: Adult males can stand up to 1 meter tall and weigh nearly 15 kg.
• The “Booming” Call: During breeding season, males inflate a gular pouch to produce a low-frequency resonance that can be heard for 1 km.
• Slow Recovery: Their population struggles because a female typically lays only one egg per year on the ground, making it an easy target for predators.
• Farmer’s Friend: As omnivores, they consume grasshoppers and beetles, acting as a natural pest control system.

Habitat and Geographic Range

Once found across the Indian subcontinent, they are now restricted to:

• Thar Desert (Rajasthan) – The primary stronghold.
• Kutch (Gujarat) – Where this recent birth occurred.
• Isolated pockets in Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh.

Operation Egg Transfer: A High-Tech Rescue Mission

The birth in Kutch was not a natural occurrence but the result of a sophisticated “foster-parenting” strategy coordinated by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and the Forest Departments of Gujarat and Rajasthan.

The Problem: The “Male Drought” in Kutch

For years, the GIB population in Kutch consisted only of females. Without males, these females continued to lay eggs, but they were unfertilized and would never hatch.

The Solution: The Swap Strategy

1. Egg Sourcing: A fertilized egg was collected from a healthy breeding pair in Rajasthan’s Desert National Park.
2. The 19-Hour Cold Chain: The egg was placed in a specialized portable incubator and transported 19 hours by road to Kutch, maintaining a precise micro-climate to ensure the embryo survived.
3. The Decoy Swap: Wildlife experts monitored a wild female in Kutch. When she left her nest briefly, the team swapped her unfertilized egg with the fertile one from Rajasthan.
4. Acceptance: The female returned, accepted the “new” egg as her own, and successfully incubated it until the chick hatched.

Examination Focused MCQs

Q1. The Great Indian Bustard (GIB) is considered the “flagship species” of which Indian ecosystem?

A) Alpine Meadows

B) Tropical Rainforests

C) Dry Grasslands and Scrublands

D) Mangrove Forests

Q2. What is the current IUCN Red List status of the Ghorad (Great Indian Bustard)?

A) Vulnerable

B) Endangered

C) Critically Endangered

D) Extinct in the Wild

Q3. “Operation Egg Transfer,” recently seen in the news, is a conservation strategy involving which two Indian states?

A) Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh

B) Gujarat and Rajasthan

C) Maharashtra and Karnataka

D) Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu

Q4. Why is the Great Indian Bustard population recovery considered naturally slow?

A) They migrate to Africa every winter.

B) Females lay only one egg per year.

C) They are strictly herbivores and face food shortages.

D) They only breed once every five years.

Q5. Which organization is the primary technical partner for the GIB conservation breeding program in India?

A) Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS)

B) Wildlife Institute of India (WII)

C) World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)

D) NITI Aayog