JAIPUR: This might sound like a clarion call. If things go the way they are, the coming generations would be reading about the Great Indian Bustard (GIB), the state bird of Rajasthan, the way they do about the dinosaurs. Listed as critically endangered (IUCN 2011) under Schedule I (the highest protection status, Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972, the GIB is numerically closest to extinction and its conservation efforts are heading nowhere.

The figures are alarming. One year back, a Wildlife Institute of India (WII) survey counted 44 Great Indian Bustards in Rajasthan. However, one month back, the Rajasthan forest department could count only 28 and one week back in another forest department survey, we were left with only 13 GIBs.

If numbers are to be believed then very soon, the GIB or Ardeotis nigriceps, among one of the largest flying bird species found in the world today, would be extinct very soon. Add to that, only two other states that now house a population of GIB, Gujarat and Maharashtra are left with only 11 and 6 birds respectively.

Recently, a meeting was held in New Delhi on a proposal of habitat improvement and conservation on captive breeding of GIB, submitted by WII, Dehradun. The proposal was to get financial assistance under the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA). The implementing agencies were to be the WII and the states of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra with a proposed budget of Rs 33.85 crore, because GIB, once spread across the length and breadth of the country, is now concentrated in these three western states.

Under the proposal, Rajasthan was to share the bird's bio material for a conservation centre to be set up in Gujarat. The meeting concluded without any decision as the state refused to share the GIB eggs with Gujarat. "Rajasthan has the largest population of GIB and IUCN guidelines strongly suggest that ex-situ conservation is best and in-situ, if at all, should reflect local micro-climate. So if captive breeding is to be done at all, then the centre should be in Rajasthan. It would be better instead to take birds from Maharashtra as the species is almost extinct there with just six birds remaining," said a senior forest official.

But technically speaking, none of the two locations - Rajasthan and Gujarat - would make for a conducive habitat for the GIB. Both the states, shelving the GIB cause, now boast of investment on wind farms that besides causing bird mortality would further eat into the nesting areas. Ironically, on one hand, the Japanese have invested in wind power in Jaisalmer that conservationalists say is lethal for the GIB; on the other hand, the Japan Bank has committed a financial support of Rs 3 crore to the GIB conservation project. The Rajasthan forest department has allotted more than Rs 12 crore for the GIB conservation programme (Project Great Indian Bustard. The total project was worth Rs 13 crore.

Under the GIB project, proposed closures were to be made in Khudi Rasla, Pokhran and Shahgarh areas of Jaisalmer district for safe habitat of the state bird. In order to regularly monitor the bird, information chips were to be installed. As a part of the programme, the forest department would establish a captive stock of the birds who will lay eggs. This will be followed by hatching of the eggs, which would then go on to become chicks. The chicks would then be reared to become adults who again after mating in captivity will lay eggs before being released in semi-captivity.

But a research paper by International Centre for Birds of Prey (Bustard group) strongly feels otherwise. "The more endangered certain species or populations of bustard become, the more there are people to step forward believing that captive breeding will supply the answer. As things stand at present, it will not," the paper says.

It further goes on to say, "The birds are difficult to breed in captivity and they are hard enough merely to maintain. Beginning in 1962, there have been several attempts to establish captive populations of Great Indian Bustards at Bikaner and Jodhpur zoos in Rajasthan. But of the total of l8 birds captured, adult and chick, only three survived. Thus, the survival rate was less than l7% and the breeding was a complete failure. All the survivors were females, and the only pair to succeed in establishing itself for any length of time was formed of the original two adults at Bikaner; the male died accidentally about two years after capture and subsequent replacements failed to survive for long. The question arises, should we capture more birds from the wild? Surely, the answer is no."

Besides in the past too, the state government had announced Project Great Indian Bustard in 2012, something on the lines of Project Tiger to conserve the GIB. Apart from enclosure construction, the department was also to develop "inviolate space" on 2,000 hectares area and focus on water spots and security infrastructure. But it's 2015 and we are left with estimated 13 birds only in Rajasthan.

According to proposed MoU:

Rajasthan was to share up to 50 Great Indian Bustard eggs for the purpose of conservation breeding

These eggs were to be collected by the project personnel from the wild GIB breeding sites in Rajasthan

The wild-harvested eggs shall be treated as per the action plan

In due course of project execution, as the captive-bred Great Indian Bustards become ready for release into the wild, conservation areas in Rajasthan shall be prioritised for the release, followed by conservation areas in Gujarat and Maharashtra

The choice of sites for releasing these captive-bred birds will depend on the degree of in-situ management actions implemented by the state forest departments and the level of habitat restoration in these conservation areas. Therefore, the governing body shall set up a task force for identifying the release sites within these states

GIB status:

Currently, the Great Indian Bustard is confined to only eight pockets in six Indian states - Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. The largest population is found in Jaisalmer, Barmer and Bikaner districts of Rajasthan. The only species that went extinct in independent India was the Cheetah, also a grassland species.

Way to go:

Experts from Bombay Natural History Society feel, "Instead of a strictly protectionist or legally-enforced approach, we will need a management approach, most of which will have to be self-enforced by communities. Conservation planning will have to involve new players, like district commissioners, the revenue department, agricultural officers and gram sabhas. All of them have to be roped in to identify and protect revenue and private lands that bustards forage on, and to encourage natural agro-biodiversity. The action ideally needed is, clearly, the creation of large, sensibly managed and carefully protected nature reserve."

Conservation lapse:

Rising to the need of conserving the bird, the Union government had prepared a recovery programme in 2012 for three species of bustard — Great Indian Bustard, Bengal Florican and Lesser Florican. These birds are on the verge on extinction due to complete neglect, poaching, shrinking arid and grassland habitats, lack of protection and nesting sites, missing support from local communities and government apathy.