In culmination of 10 years of dedicated efforts, Union Environment Minister and CM (Rajasthan) initiate the process for release of captive-bred Great Indian Bustards into the Wild at Desert National Park, Jaislamer

1. At a Glance

• What: India's GIB programme has moved from conservation breeding (building a captive population) to rewilding, which means releasing birds into their natural habitat. Two captive-bred GIBs are to be released from a soft-release facility in Desert National Park (DNP), Jaisalmer. [1]
• Who: The process was started by Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav and Rajasthan CM Bhajan Lal Sharma (who joined by VC) during Wildlife Week 2026. [1]
• Why it matters: The GIB is Critically Endangered (IUCN) and listed in Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 [3]. It is the State bird of Rajasthan [1] and an umbrella species of the Thar grasslands [1]. The topic links to SC jurisprudence on balancing renewable energy against biodiversity [2].
• Exam relevance: It covers ex-situ and in-situ conservation, the "jumpstart" technique, CAMPA funding, priority areas and power-line rules. It fits GS-III (Environment) and Prelims species/PA questions.

2. Why in the News

• 3 Oct 2026: The process for the first release of two captive-bred GIBs began, with the release itself scheduled for 4 Oct 2026 at DNP, Jaisalmer. [1]
• On the same day the dignitaries inaugurated the Rewilding Aviary at Ramdevra, reviewed the Conservation Breeding Centres at Ramdevra and Sam, and released a brochure on the GIB's "decadal journey". [1]
• 19 Dec 2025: The SC disposed of M.K. Ranjitsinh v. Union of India. It fixed revised priority areas of 14,013 sq km (Rajasthan) and 740 sq km (Gujarat). [2]

3. Background & Evolution

• Rationale: The GIB has a very slow life cycle: it reaches sexual maturity at 3–4 years and lays one egg per breeding season [6]. Its main threats are hunting, conversion of grasslands to farmland, transmission lines and wind turbines [6].
• Population decline:
• Hunting and egg collection had reduced numbers to ~1,260 birds by 1969 [6].
• There has been a decline of about 75% over three decades [6].

• Rajasthan estimated ~125 birds in 2013 [2]. WII estimates ~200 globally, of which ~150 are in the Thar [3].

• IUCN trajectory:

• Threatened (1988)
• Endangered (1994–2008)

• Critically Endangered (2011 onwards; last assessed 2018) [2]

• Milestones:

• Rajasthan's "Project Godawan" (Project GIB): a state-led conservation effort [2].
• WII–CAMPA project "Habitat improvement and conservation breeding of great Indian bustard: an integrated approach", funded by National CAMPA [3].
• Conservation breeding centres set up at Sam and Ramdevra (Jaisalmer), with Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra Forest Departments and WII technical support [5].
• 19 Apr 2021: The SC restricted overhead transmission lines across ~99,000 sq km. It ordered bird diverters on existing lines in priority and potential areas, and undergrounding where feasible within one year. It also set up a 3-member committee. [2]
• 21 Mar 2024: The SC modified the 2021 order. It held that a blanket undergrounding prohibition across ~99,000 sq km had no basis and formed an Expert Committee to report by 31 Jul 2024. [4][2]
• 19 Dec 2025: Final judgment accepting the nine-member Expert Committee's majority recommendations. [2]
• Gujarat: A GIB chick hatched in Gujarat for the first time in about a decade through the jumpstart approach (trans-state effort) [5].
• 3–4 Oct 2026: First rewilding release at DNP [1].

4. Core Static Facts

• Jumpstart: Captive-laid eggs are placed in wild nests, and the incubating wild females accept and hatch them [1].
• Soft release: Birds are acclimatised in an enclosure or aviary at the release site before they are freed. This builds flight muscles and natural behaviour [1].

5. Multi-Dimensional Analysis

Environmental

• The GIB is an umbrella species: protecting it also protects Thar grassland biodiversity [1].
• It is linked to land degradation neutrality and to grasslands that serve as stopovers on the Central Asian Flyway [1].
• ~200 sq km of fenced enclosures in DNP restore breeding habitat [1]. The SC has ordered grassland restoration and consolidation and the protection of five critical sites in Rajasthan [2].

Legal / Constitutional

• The case is an Art. 32 PIL. It moved from a blanket restriction (2021) to an evidence-based, area-specific regime (2025) [2].
• Key 2025 directions [2]:
• A power corridor up to 5 km wide, located ≥5 km south of DNP's southernmost enclosure.
• No new wind turbines and no new solar plants above 2 MW in Rajasthan's revised priority area.
• 80 km of 33 kV lines to be undergrounded immediately.

• 250 km of critical lines identified by WII to be undergrounded within 2 years.

• The judgment cites the fundamental duty under Art. 51A(g) [2]. Conservation actions are "guided by the SC judgment" [1].

Scientific / Technological

• The programme uses artificial insemination. Of 26 chicks hatched up to the programme's 4th year, 18 came from AI, 4 from natural breeding and 4 from wild-collected eggs [5].
• Other tools are jumpstart nest-supplementation and long-term telemetry by WII [1].
• The first release is a pilot: its lessons will be used to refine release protocols [1]. The SC also ordered long-term studies of climate-change impacts on the GIB [2].

Economic

• Renewable energy vs conservation: The 2024 ruling noted the area's immense solar potential and the technical limits of undergrounding high-voltage lines [2].
• Eco-tourism could bring income to local communities [1].

Social / Cultural

• The GIB is part of the Thar's cultural heritage: the SC records Bishnoi eco-veneration and Godawan folklore [2][1].
• Community engagement is a pillar of the National Action Plan [1].

Administrative / Federal

• The programme is a joint Union–State–WII effort, with funding from National CAMPA and the Government of Rajasthan (the aviary) [1].
• There is a Rajasthan–Gujarat collaboration (the Naliya, Kutch soft-release facility) [1][5].
• MoEFCC set up a Task Force on eco-friendly ways to reduce the harm power lines do to wildlife [5].

6. Recent Developments (last 12–18 months)

• 2025: 24 captive-bred chicks [1].
• 19 Dec 2025: Final SC judgment fixing the revised priority areas, the power corridor and undergrounding timelines [2].
• 2026: 29 captive-bred chicks [1]. Gujarat hatched a chick through jumpstart, its first in about a decade [5][1].
• 2026 (before Oct): The Union Minister reviewed the Naliya (Kutch) soft-release facility [1].
• 3 Oct 2026: Ramdevra Rewilding Aviary inaugurated, and the release process began [1].
• 4 Oct 2026: Scheduled release of 2 captive-bred GIBs at DNP [1].

7. Prelims Hooks

• The GIB is the State bird of Rajasthan; its local name is Godawan. [1][2]
• Scientific name: Ardeotis nigriceps. [6]
• IUCN: Critically Endangered since 2011 (Endangered 1994–2008). [2]
• Schedule I, Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. [3]
• The two GIB breeding centres are at Sam and Ramdevra, Jaisalmer. [1]
• Funding comes from National CAMPA. The technical partner is the International Fund for Houbara Conservation. [1]
• Lead scientific institution: Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun. [1][5]
• "Jumpstart": captive-laid eggs placed in wild nests. It produced 6 chicks in Rajasthan and 2 in Gujarat. [1]
• Captive stock: 97 birds, of which 11 are earmarked for release. [1]
• Ramdevra Rewilding Aviary: 160 × 64 × 14 m, ₹9.25 crore, built through RSRDC. [1]
• ~200 sq km of fenced grassland enclosures inside Desert National Park. [1]
• SC revised priority areas (Dec 2025): Rajasthan 14,013 sq km, Gujarat 740 sq km. [2]
• SC power corridor: up to 5 km wide, ≥5 km south of DNP. [2]
• No new solar plants above 2 MW or wind turbines in Rajasthan's revised priority area. [2]
• 250 km of WII-identified critical lines to be undergrounded within 2 years. [2]
• Females lay one egg per season and mature at 3–4 years. [6]

8. Two Birds Released, About Eighteen Lost to Power Lines Every Year

• The release is small next to the yearly loss
• Two captive-bred birds are being released, and 11 in total are set aside for release [1].
• In 2017–18, WII walked under power lines in the Thar and found two GIB carcasses. Scaling this up to all the high-tension lines (lines above 33 kV) in prime GIB habitat, it estimated that about 18 GIBs die every year from hitting power lines [6].

• The wild Thar population is only about 150 birds [3]. Losing about 18 a year means losing more than one bird in ten every year.

• So the release counts only if deaths come down first

• Captive breeding now gives 24–29 chicks a year [1]. Most of them stay in the breeding flock (86 of the 97 birds) [1].
• A released bird will fly over the same wires that kill wild birds. If deaths stay near the 2017–18 level, releases can at best replace losses. They cannot grow the population.

• Note: the 18-a-year figure comes from before the SC's undergrounding orders. It is the starting level to measure progress against, not today's rate.

• The court's undergrounding order is smaller than the problem WII mapped

• WII listed 754 km of high-tension lines in priority GIB habitat that needed mitigation (safety measures). 475 km of these belong to the state power company RVPNL; Suzlon, Jodhpur Discom and other firms own the rest [6].
• The Dec 2025 judgment orders 80 km undergrounded immediately and 250 km within two years [2].

• The two lists do not cover exactly the same area. But most of the mapped lines will stay overhead and depend on bird diverters (bright markers hung on wires so birds see them).

• Why diverters alone may not be enough

• GIBs are low, heavy flyers with poor forward vision. They fly into wires they cannot see from far away [6].
• WII also estimated that power lines kill about 83,868 birds of all species a year in a 4,200 sq km study area [6]. The wires threaten the whole grassland bird community, not only the GIB.

9. Why the Birds Will Not Stay Inside the Fence

• Fenced enclosures work, but they are tiny
• Enclosures cover only 1.01% of the study area. Yet 70.17% of the GPS locations of tagged GIBs were inside them [6].

• This supports the official plan to keep 10–20 sq km enclosures, managed by science, inside DNP [6].

• Birds still go outside, onto farmland and under wires

• A tagged bird moved about 5.8 km a day on average [6].
• WII found three crop-field sites outside the enclosures that birds used heavily: Kali mali, Bhilo ka khet and Dhaneli [6].

• Every trip outside the fence passes over unprotected land, where power lines and dogs are.

• Desert National Park is not a people-free area

• DNP covers 3,162 sq km. It is not inviolate (not cleared of human use) and has 37 villages inside it [6].
• The Thar is the world's most crowded desert, with about 85 people per sq km. Most of them live by herding and rain-fed farming [6].
• So the GIB has to survive in a landscape where people live and work, not in a closed reserve. WII's own conclusion is a mix: protect the breeding sites, and make the land uses around them safe for the bird [6].

10. The Strongest Case Against the Court's Limits, and the Answer

• The objection: a few birds are blocking clean energy
• Western Rajasthan has huge solar potential. In 2024 the SC accepted that undergrounding high-voltage lines has real technical limits [2][4].
• The 2025 regime bans new wind turbines and new solar plants above 2 MW across 14,013 sq km of Rajasthan [2].

• Critics ask: should clean power, needed to fight climate change, wait for about 150 birds?

• What the objection gets right

• The cost is real. WII itself records that a large number of solar and wind projects, with their transmission lines, are spreading across this landscape [6].

• The 2021 blanket rule over about 99,000 sq km was too wide. The SC itself changed it in 2024 because it had no clear basis [4][2].

• Why the answer still favours the current regime

• The rule has already been cut down: from about 99,000 sq km to 14,013 sq km, guided by bird-location data [2].
• A power corridor up to 5 km wide has been kept open, south of DNP [2]. So power can still be moved; it just has to go around the core habitat.
• The extinction of a species cannot be undone. A solar plant can be built elsewhere in the Thar.
• The state has also spent ten years and CAMPA money building a captive flock [1]. Putting up new lines through release areas would waste that money as well.

11. Threats That Breeding Centres Cannot Fix

• Calling grasslands 'wasteland'
• Dry grasslands are treated as 'unproductive wastelands' and given away for other uses [6].

• The GIB depends on exactly this land. While the label stays, the habitat keeps shrinking, whatever happens in the aviary.

• Dogs and pigs eat eggs and chicks

• The number of free-ranging dogs and pigs has grown in bustard habitat. Together with foxes, mongooses and cats, they are eating more nests and chicks [6].
• Thar dogs live off villages but also hunt wildlife, including GIB nests [6].

• The GIB lays one egg a season [6]. Losing that egg can wipe out a female's whole breeding year.

• Well-meant tree planting harms the bird

• Planting trees and putting up protective structures on open land shrinks the last bustard habitats [6].

• The GIB needs open grassland. 'Greening' the desert is the wrong fix here.

• Old sanctuaries turned local people against the bird

• Earlier bustard sanctuaries were declared over land people used, without settling their land rights first [6].
• This caused anger, persecution of the birds, and local extinction of the GIB at some sanctuaries [6].
• Releases will fail on the same fault line if villagers again see the bird as a threat to their land.

12. What Should Happen Next, and Who Must Do It

• WII should publish survival data for every released bird
• The first release is officially a pilot meant to improve future protocols [1].

• Telemetry (radio or GPS tracking tags) data on how long released birds live, and how they die, would show if releases work, or if more birds should stay in the breeding flock.

• Power companies should fix lines in priority-area order

• RVPNL, Jodhpur Discom and the private firms that WII names as line owners [6] should finish the court-ordered undergrounding on time [2].

• Release sites should be cleared of wires first. Otherwise the soft-release enclosure becomes a launch pad into the wires.

• MoEFCC and Rajasthan should apply the 2013 Bustard Guidelines in full

• The National Guidelines for Bustard Recovery Plans (2013) asked for inviolate breeding areas, threat control across the landscape, community incentives, and captive breeding only as insurance (a back-up population) [6].

• WII says these steps have been carried out with mixed success [6]. Captive breeding moved fastest. Incentives for local people and safe land use outside the enclosures did not keep pace.

• The Rajasthan Forest Department should run dog control with villages

• WII has already counted dogs in 18 settlements around DNP to plan sterilisation and control [6].

• Doing this together with village panchayats builds the community link that the National Action Plan lists as a pillar [1].

• Revenue records should stop listing grassland as wasteland

• The Rajasthan government should give priority-area grasslands a separate land category, so they are not handed out for other uses [6].

13. Anchors for Answers

• Data: About 18 GIBs estimated to die every year from collisions with high-tension lines in prime Thar habitat (WII, 2017–18 surveys) [6]
• Data: Enclosures cover 1.01% of the area but held 70.17% of tagged GIB locations [6]
• Data: 754 km of high-tension lines in priority GIB habitat flagged for mitigation by WII [6]
• Report/Committee: National Guidelines for Bustard Recovery Plans (MoEFCC, 2013); SC Expert Committee (nine members), whose majority view was accepted on 19 Dec 2025 [6][2]
• Law/Case: M.K. Ranjitsinh v. Union of India (2021 order → 2024 INSC 280 → 2025 INSC 1472); Art. 51A(g); Schedule I, WPA 1972 [2][4]
• Scheme: National CAMPA-funded WII GIB project, which pays for both habitat work and captive breeding [3][6]

14. Mains Relevance

• GS-III: Conservation, environmental degradation, EIA; infrastructure (energy).
• GS-II: Role of the judiciary (PILs under Art. 32); Centre–State cooperation.
• GS-I: Geography (Thar Desert, grassland ecosystems).
• Question stems: 1. 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. (15 marks) 2. The M.K. Ranjitsinh litigation shows the tension between India's renewable-energy targets and biodiversity conservation. Discuss how the judiciary has tried to balance the two. (15 marks) 3. Grasslands are India's most neglected ecosystems. Using the GIB as an umbrella species, suggest a policy framework for grassland conservation. (10 marks)

15. Related Topics to Study Next

• Lesser Florican and Bengal Florican: fellow bustards; the Lesser Florican is a co-subject of the same SC case [2].
• CMS and the Central Asian Flyway: the GIB's CMS protection and flyway stopover role [5][1].
• CAMPA (Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act, 2016): the funding source of the programme [1].
• Desert National Park and the Thar ecosystem: the release site and protected-area facts.
• Bird diverters, power-line mitigation and the Green Energy Corridor: the energy–wildlife interface [2][5].
• Cheetah reintroduction (Kuno): compare it with GIB rewilding as another species-recovery model.
• Bishnoi community and Khejarli (1730): the cultural conservation ethic cited by the SC [2].
• Wildlife (Protection) Amendment Act, 2022: the restructured Schedules.

16. NCERT Concepts to Revise

• Great Indian Bustard (Geography): The article's central species: its slow breeding, power-line deaths and Thar habitat explain the whole conservation effort.
• Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972 (Geography): Gives the GIB Schedule I protection and underpins national parks like Desert National Park.
• Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act 2016 (Geography): National CAMPA money funds the GIB breeding and habitat project, a likely question on funding.
• Green Energy Corridor (Geography): Shows the clash between moving renewable power from Rajasthan and protecting bustards from power lines.
• In situ conservation (Geography): Helps contrast captive breeding and release with protection in natural habitat, as in Desert National Park enclosures.
• IUCN (Geography): Its Red List gives the GIB's Critically Endangered status, a common Prelims fact.

17. Common Errors / Trap Areas

• Breeding centres: They are at Sam and Ramdevra (Jaisalmer), not in Kutch. Naliya (Kutch, Gujarat) is the Gujarat soft-release facility. [1]
• Houbara vs GIB: The International Fund for Houbara Conservation (UAE-based) is only a technical partner; the Houbara is a different bustard. Funding comes from National CAMPA, not a central scheme such as IDWH. [1]
• The 2021 order was not the final rule: It was modified in Mar 2024, and the final regime came in Dec 2025. The 99,000 sq km figure belongs to the old 2021 restriction; the operative priority area is now 14,013 sq km for Rajasthan. [2]
• IUCN status: It is Critically Endangered, not Endangered. It was Endangered only from 1994 to 2008. [2]
• Jumpstart ≠ captive hatching: Captive-laid eggs are hatched by wild females in wild nests. [1]
• Population figures: Avoid quoting one figure as definitive. Use ~125 (Rajasthan, 2013) [2], ~200 globally (WII) [3], or 50–249 mature birds (IUCN) [2], and attribute each one.