Grassland ecosystems remain the most neglected in India's conservation priorities. Comment with examples.

Q. Grassland ecosystems remain the most neglected in India's conservation priorities. Comment with examples. (15 marks, 250-350 words)

India's open natural ecosystems — grasslands, savannas and scrub — are still officially mapped under the Wasteland Atlas of India, which lists grazing land, pasture and scrub as "wastelands" to be returned to productive use [1]. This framing largely validates the statement, though recent species-specific action marks a partial correction.

Neglect begins with classification and policy design - Categorising grasslands as wastelands makes them the default choice for diversion to solar parks, industry and compensatory plantation drives [1]. - India has no "Project Grassland" parallel to Project Tiger or Project Elephant; grassland work enters funding streams like CAMPA only as species-linked schemes, such as the integrated GIB habitat-improvement and breeding project [4].

Consequences for species and pastoral livelihoods - The Great Indian Bustard, Rajasthan's State bird and a Schedule I species under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, is now Critically Endangered, with the IUCN estimating only 50–249 mature individuals surviving, mostly in Rajasthan [5]. - Grassland-dependent species like the lesser florican, blackbuck and wolf fall outside forest-centric protection, while pastoral communities dependent on commons lose secure grazing access.

Development pressures outweigh habitat value - In M.K. Ranjitsinh v. Union of India (2024), the Supreme Court substantially modified its 2021 direction to underground power lines across GIB habitat, citing cost and feasibility, and referred the balancing of renewable energy expansion with bustard survival to an expert committee [5].

Corrective steps, though belated - Project Great Indian Bustard, run by the Rajasthan Forest Department with Wildlife Institute of India support, established conservation breeding centres at Sam and Ramdevra, Jaisalmer [2][3]. - In July 2026, three captive-bred chicks entered a purpose-built rewilding tunnel at the Godawan Conservation Centre for months of no-contact conditioning before release into Desert National Park [6].

Grasslands are thus neglected less by intent than by a legal vocabulary that denies them ecological worth. Recognising open natural ecosystems as a distinct conservation category, delinking them from wasteland mapping, and treating pastoralists as co-managers would align India's habitat policy with SDG-15 and give recovery programmes like the bustard's the landscape they ultimately need.

(~325 words)

Sources: 1. Wasteland Atlas of India 2019, Department of Land Resources, Ministry of Rural Development — official classification of grazing land, pasture and scrub as "wasteland" 2. Project Great Indian Bustard, Rajasthan Forest Department — state-led GIB conservation programme and breeding centres 3. PIB, "Protection of Great Indian Bustards", Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change — Schedule I status, conservation breeding facility at Sam with WII technical support 4. National CAMPA, "Habitat Improvement and Conservation Breeding of the Great Indian Bustard" — grassland work funded as a species-specific scheme 5. M.K. Ranjitsinh & Ors. v. Union of India, W.P. (C) No. 838 of 2019, Supreme Court, 21 March 2024 — IUCN population estimate; modification of the power-line undergrounding order 6. The Hindu, "Three Great Indian Bustard chicks moved into rewilding tunnel" (27 July 2026) — first rewilding cohort at Godawan Conservation Centre, Ramdevra