India's Lesser Floricans 'Critically Endangered', shows nation's conservation crisis

In 2021, it was moved to ‘Critically Endangered’ again, after having been shifted to the 'Endangered' list

The smallest of the bustard family, Lesser Florican, which is renowned for its spectacular leaping breeding display, is facing a severe threat.

The widespread loss of its grassland habitat in South Asia has led to rapid declines of this ‘Critically Endangered' species, according to UK-based BirdLife International.

“Of all the bird conservation crises in India this is the most urgent and yet the most neglected,” says BirdLife’s Nigel Collar, who also serves as co-chair of the Bustard Specialist Group of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

“We only have a few years to save this astonishing species, and BNHS needs all the support it can get to expand its valiant efforts,” he said in a report published on the BirdLife website.

It was initially listed as ‘Critically Endangered’ in the 1994 Red List, but improved surveys indicated a slower rate of decline, and it was moved to the ‘Endangered’ list.

This seems to have sent a message that conservation action could be delayed and because no one took advantage of this crucial window of opportunity, the species’ decline simply continued unchecked.

In 2021, it was again reclassified as ‘Critically Endangered’-- barely able to cling to the final patches of habitat that remain.

Vast areas of natural grassland have been converted to agricultural land, and what’s left is being degraded by overgrazing, invasive plants and disrupted rainfall patterns resulting from climate change.

These dangers are compounded by the threat of feral dogs, hunting and egg-collecting. Even in flight, the species isn’t safe -- researchers suspect that collisions with infrastructure such as roads and power lines cause significant mortality.

The BNHS and BirdLife and other local conservation organisations have been working with farmers in one of the species’ final strongholds, Ajmer in Rajasthan, to raise awareness and incentivise protection of the species.

The landscape at Ajmer is now taken over by crops, so it is not an optimal habitat. Nevertheless, BNHS’s project has managed to remove invasive Prosopis trees -- native to the Americas -- in a bid to restore natural ecosystems, and has established a community conservation reserve for organic, low-intensity farming. This should hopefully buy the species valuable time.