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Ecology & Environment
Mahesh

30/03/24 10:26 AM IST

Great Indian Bustards

In News
  • The Centre has told the SC that it is not possible to comply with the court's order to put power lines underground, even as they crisscross the Godavans' habitat.
Threats to GIB
  • Power lines pose a risk to all flying birds.
  • In 2020, a study carried out by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) in 4,200 sq km of GIB habitat in and around Desert National Park (DNP) in Rajasthan estimated that power lines killed around 84,000 birds of multiple species every year.
  • GIBs are especially vulnerable because of their narrow frontal vision and large size.
  • Unlike some birds that have a panoramic vision around the head, species like raptors and bustards have extensive blind areas above their heads.
  • When they stretch their head forward to scan the ground below, they fly blind in the direction of travel.
  • GIBs cannot detect power lines ahead of them from far. As they are heavy birds, they are unable to manoeuvre across power lines within close distances.
  • The 2020 WII study estimated that a “conservative estimate of 4 power line induced mortalities per year was sufficient” to cause the extinction of the GIB within 20 years.
  • Power lines are not the only threat to the GIB.
  • Free-ranging dogs have proliferated alarmingly in the Thar landscape. In 2017, feral packs accounted for up to a third of Chinkara depredation in the DNP.
  • While GIBs continue to be hunted sporadically, the widespread use of pesticides in farmlands poses a greater risk to the bird.
  • Loss of grassland, particularly nesting sites, and an erosion of support from local communities are other concerns.
About GIBs
  • The Great Indian Bustard (Ardeotis nigriceps) , the State bird of Rajasthan, is considered India’s most critically endangered bird.
  • It is considered the flagship grassland species, representing the health of the grassland ecology.
  • Its population is confined mostly to Rajasthan and Gujarat. Small populations occur in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
Source- Indian Express

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