According to estimates, less than 200 GIBs are left in the country.

A huge bird with a horizontal body and long bare legs, the GIB looks like an ostrich. Among the heaviest of flying birds, they were once endemic to the dry plains of India, abundantly found in Ranebennur region of central Karnataka. Habitat changes and rampant poaching have affected their population significantly.

"GIBs are shrinking by the day; their count has fallen below the 200 mark," says Mohammed Esmail Dilawar, president and founder, Nature Forever Society, Maharashtra.

S Subramanya, scientist and senior faculty member at University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), says: "Grasslands in the state are being converted to agriculturally fit land and pressure from real-estate development is immense too. Habitat loss is the obvious consequence."

Experts say a vibrant GIB population is reflective of a healthy ecosystem. However, the bird's shrinking numbers signal an impending environmental disaster, they warn.

"GIBs are an indicator of a healthy grassland ecosystem," says Sujit Narwade, project scientist, Bombay Natural History Society. "Grasslands as a forest category support biodiversity dependent on it, ranging from termites and spiders to insects and wolves. Unfortunately, they are usually considered wastelands. Many species exist in the food web and food chain in grassland ecosystems. If one is allowed to vanish, other species too will unknowingly disappear."

Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka have an estimated population of 10-15 birds each; they can still be spotted in the existing bustard ranges. Gujarat and Rajasthan support a higher number of bustards.

In 2012, the drastic fall in the population of Indian bustards, their endangered status and the decline of grasslands prompted the ministry of environment and forests to draft a species recovery programme for them. Each bustard range state developed site-specific conservation plans, but their implementation has floundered, including of the one in Karnataka.