Discuss the significance of grassland ecosystems in India's biodiversity conservation strategy, with reference to the Great Indian Bustard and Project Cheetah.

Grasslands and savannas, long treated as low-priority "wasteland" in land records, are in fact India's most threatened biome. The near-extinction of the Critically Endangered Great Indian Bustard (GIB) and the reintroduction of the cheetah have pushed grasslands from the margins to the centre of India's conservation strategy.

Ecological significance of grasslands

• Habitat for endemic, grassland-obligate species — the GIB and Lesser Florican are so closely tied to this biome that both are covered by a single joint Conservation Action Plan [1].
• Support carbon storage in soils, groundwater recharge and pastoral livelihoods of graziers; the Banni rangelands of Kutch are a classic pastoral commons [1].
• Sustain prey bases (blackbuck, chinkara) essential for open-country predators.

GIB: the grassland indicator species

• Gujarat's Kutch grasslands retain only three surviving female GIBs, leaving no possibility of a fertile wild egg — a measure of habitat collapse [2].
• Response has been multi-pronged: CAMPA funding of Rs 33.85 crore (2016) for habitat improvement and conservation breeding [3], scaled to Rs 77.05 crore over five years (2024) covering surveys, artificial insemination, predator protection, telemetry and community participation [1].
• Conservation breeding, guided by the Wildlife Institute of India with Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra forest departments [4], has raised a captive population of 70 birds [5]; the novel "Jumpstart Approach" moved an incubated egg 770 km to hatch a chick in Kutch after a decade [2].

Project Cheetah: restoration through a flagship predator

• Since 2022 at Kuno, the population stands at 48 cheetahs, including 28 India-born cubs [1], validating open-habitat management.
• Expansion is now planned to the Banni grasslands, where habitat readiness and prey augmentation are satisfactory [1] — proof that predator recovery drives grassland restoration.

Together, the bustard and the cheetah show that species recovery is inseparable from restoring the grasslands they inhabit. Going forward, India should notify grasslands as a distinct ecosystem category, secure them outside protected areas through community-managed pasture rights, and mainstream rangeland restoration into its commitments under SDG 15 and the Convention on Biological Diversity.