JAIPUR, MARCH 8. Even when the Project Tiger is showing signs of turning into a disappointment with the wild tigers missing from the country's sanctuaries of late, bird lovers have sought setting up of a Project Bustards to protect the endangered Great Indian Bustard(GIB) and other three species of Bustards found in India and Pakistan.
The Mumbai-based Bombay Natural History Society(BNHS) has taken up the cause of Bustards which had caught the focus of the World Conservation Congress held in Bangkok from November 17-25, 2004. It was in the third session of the Congress that GIB(Ardeotis nigriceps) was identified as the most endangered member of the Bustard family and an appeal was made to the Governments of India and Pakistan to take immediate measures to protect it.
"Project Tiger and Project Elephant have shown that by identifying an indicator species and focussing attention on it and its habitat, an array of threatened species and habitats can be protected,'' Azad R.Rahmani, director of BNHS observed.
GIB was widely distributed in the arid and semi- arid grasslands of India and Pakistan in the past and now their numbers have shrunk to 500-1000. Poaching and habitat deterioration have been identified as the two major reasons for their decline. GIB lives at low density and depends on a wider landscape, with short grass plains, low intensity agriculture and traditional livestock grazing. "It is locally extinct from almost 90 per cent of its former range and has ironically disappeared from three sanctuaries made specially for its protection,'' Dr.Rahmani, who held an interactive session here with the senior functionaries of the Rajasthan Forest Department on the Desert National Park, one of the Bustard areas, said.
Along with GIB, the Lesser Florican, Bengal Florican, and the migratory population of Houbara Bustard are also facing threat from poaching and habitat destruction. "To save Bustards we need to stop habitat destruction, disturbance during breeding season and poaching, and should lay down a clear cut land use policy and domestic animal grazing policy,'' he noted.
GIBs are found in six States--Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharshtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan-- while Houbara is a winter migrant to the desert regions of Rajasthan and Gujarat. The Lesser Floricans are found in the short grass plains in western and central India and Bengal Floricans, in the tall wetlands of the Terai and the Brahmaputra valley.
To make a beginning, the Rajasthan authorities have promised Dr.Rahmani the earmarking of 400-500 hectares of area in the near future for protection of the grassland habitat. "We will go by the basic theme of the National Habitat Action Plan, approved by the Prime Minister in the conservation of individual species and eco-systems,'' R.P.Kapoor, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Rajasthan said.
As such even the Forest Department concedes that much is not being done at the Desert National Park in western Rajasthan, with its enclosed area shrinking to mere 90 sq kms out of a total 3162 sq km. "A flagship species of the area could be identified and programmes could be prepared for improving its habitats,'' Mr.Kapoor noted. The Forest department would be only too happy to invest the Rs.2 crore it had received sometime back from the ONGC, after a court order, in the eco development programme, he informed.
