Grassland ecosystems are among India's most neglected habitats. Discuss the threats they face and suggest a framework for their restoration.

India's grasslands include the Thar's arid plains, Kutch and the Deccan scrublands. They are often written off as "wastelands", so they draw far less protection than forests. Their decline shows in their flagship species, the Great Indian Bustard (GIB). It is Critically Endangered, with only about 150 birds left in the wild [1]. Restoring grasslands therefore means dealing with the threats as well as rebuilding the habitat.

Threats to grasslands

• Habitat loss and fragmentation: Farming and settlements have broken grasslands into small, isolated patches. The GIB's priority habitat identified by WII is now only about 13,663 sq km, almost all of it in Rajasthan [2].
• Power lines for renewable energy: The Thar is central to India's solar and wind targets, and its power lines are a leading cause of death. WII estimates that about 21,000 birds of all species die each year for every ~1,000 sq km of GIB habitat [3].
• Weakened legal protection: In 2021 the Supreme Court restricted overhead lines across about 99,000 sq km. In 2024 it withdrew this blanket order as not feasible, citing the cost of underground cables [2].
• Pressure from people: Protected areas are not free of settlement. About 37 villages lie inside Desert National Park, which brings grazing and land-use conflicts [1].

A framework for restoration

Legal recognition → Threat mitigation → Habitat restoration
        ↑                                        ↓
   Monitoring  ←  Community stewardship  ←  Species recovery

Fig: Cycle of grassland restoration

• Legal basis: In M.K. Ranjitsinh v. Union of India (2024), the Supreme Court recognised a right against the adverse effects of climate change under Articles 14 and 21 [2]. This lets courts weigh grassland survival alongside clean-energy goals.
• Threat mitigation: Lines inside priority areas should go underground. Bird diverters can be used elsewhere, with carcass surveys to check whether they work [3].
• Habitat restoration: About 200 sq km of fenced grassland enclosures in Desert National Park, chosen using telemetry data, show how this can be done [4].
• Species recovery: The Bustard Recovery Programme, funded by CAMPA, holds 97 birds in captivity. On 4 Oct 2026 it released its first two males into the wild [4].
• Community stewardship and monitoring: Community engagement is one of the programme's five pillars [4]. Grazing rules should be agreed with local villages, and survival data from released birds should be made public.

Grasslands are disappearing because of how land is used, how energy is built and how policy treats them, so they need a framework that covers all three. A landscape-wide approach that combines legal recognition, safer power infrastructure and community stewardship would fulfil Article 48A and SDG 15 (Life on Land). It would also let India's clean-energy expansion go ahead while protecting the habitats it runs through.