India's GIB programme has moved from conservation breeding to rewilding. Assess the role of ex-situ measures such as the 'jumpstart' technique in recovering species with slow life histories.

The Great Indian Bustard (Ardeotis nigriceps) is Critically Endangered and listed in Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act. Only about 150 birds survive in the Thar [3]. A female matures at 3–4 years and lays one egg per season [4], so the wild population cannot recover by itself. Ex-situ measures are therefore necessary, but they work only alongside habitat protection.

Role of ex-situ measures

• Insurance population: The breeding centres at Sam and Ramdevra hold 97 birds and produced 24 chicks in 2025 and 29 in 2026 [1].
• Assisted reproduction: Artificial insemination produced 18 of the first 26 captive chicks [5]. This gets around the slow rate of natural pairing.
• Jumpstart technique: Captive-laid eggs are placed in wild nests and hatched by wild females. This produced 6 chicks in Rajasthan and 2 in Gujarat, including Gujarat's first in about a decade [1]. The chicks learn wild behaviour from their foster mothers from day one.
• Soft release: The pillar-less Rewilding Aviary at Ramdevra acclimatises birds before release [1].

Limitations

• Releases are small next to losses: WII estimated that about 18 GIBs die every year from hitting power lines [4]. Only 11 birds are earmarked for release [1].
• Birds leave the protected area: Fenced enclosures cover just 1.01% of WII's study area. Tagged birds still travel about 5.8 km a day onto farmland [4].
• Threats in the wild remain: Free-ranging dogs eat eggs and chicks, and grasslands are classed as "wastelands" and given away for other uses [4].
• Survival is unproven: The first release is officially a pilot [1].

In-situ measures that must go with it

• In M.K. Ranjitsinh v. Union of India (2025), the Supreme Court fixed a 14,013 sq km priority area in Rajasthan. It ordered 80 km of power lines to be undergrounded immediately and 250 km within two years [2].
• About 200 sq km of fenced grassland enclosures inside Desert National Park are being restored [1].

Assessment: Ex-situ tools such as jumpstart buy time for slow-breeding species, but they cannot bring about recovery alone. The National Bustard Guidelines (2013) treated captive breeding only as insurance [4]. Releases will succeed only if power-line deaths and habitat loss are reduced and local communities are involved. Publishing survival data for every released bird, together with landscape-level protection, would fulfil the duty under Article 51A(g) and advance SDG 15 (Life on Land).