Habitat Improvement and conservation breeding of Great Indian Bustard : an integrated approach Annual Progress Report II (March 2017-April 2018)

Abstract

The Great Indian Bustard Ardeotis nigriceps (hereafter GIB) is one of the rarest birds in the world. With ~150 individuals left, almost exclusively in India, the species is listed as Critically Endangered (IUCN 2011) and lies within Schedule I (the highest protection status) of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. Their populations have steadily declined by 75% in last 30 years and are facing imminent extinction risk unless serious management interventions are applied (Dutta et al. 2011). Historically, GIB was distributed throughout the western half of India, but, currently they are found in five fragmented pockets. According to our recent population assessment (Dutta et al. 2016), the largest population of 140+53 birds occurs in Thar landscape of Rajasthan (Desert National Park in Jaisalmer alongside Jodhpur). The other populations are <15 birds each, occurring in Gujarat (Lala-Naliya Sanctuary and its neighbourhood in Kachchh), Maharashtra (Bustard Sanctuary in Solapur, alongside Chandrapur and Nagpur), Andhra Pradesh (Rollapadu Sanctuary and its neighbourhood in Kurnool) and Karnataka (Bellary) (Dutta et al. 2011). The species has declined due to compounding effects of direct and indirect human exploitation on their slow life-history traits. They were subjected to exhaustive hunting and egg collection in the past that reduced their population to ~1260 birds in 1969 (Dharmakumarsinhji 1971). However, their contemporary decline is largely due to prevailing habitat loss as dry grasslands have been marginalized as ‘unproductive wastelands’ and progressively converted to other land uses since colonial times. Recent developments in irrigation and farming technologies have intensified agriculture in bustard habitats and changed cropping practices from seasonal to year-round, intensive crops. This change has led to food scarcity for bustards, pesticide contamination, and habitat loss. Development activities like infrastructural growth (electricity, road and irrigation networks), industries, power projects, and wind turbines have caused severe habitat degradation and disturbance to birds. Being low and heavy flyers, they face a high risk of fatal collisions with power-lines, which are difficult to detect from afar. Populations of free-ranging dogs have increased in bustard habitats, and along with native predators (fox, mongooses, and cats), they have increased predation pressure on nests and chicks and reduced recruitment. Past efforts of banning human activities to create bustard Sanctuaries over large human-use landscapes, without appropriate settlement of land rights, have generated bitterness among local people, leading to lack of conservation support. These factors have in turn caused local extinctions from some Sanctuaries. Local people and managers are not sufficiently aware of the conservation benefits of grasslands and the scientific ways to manage them.