<p>New Delhi: After a decade, a Great Indian Bustard chick was born in <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/india/gujarat">Gujarat</a>, raising hopes for the species' recovery in the grasslands of Kutch.</p><p>With only three female GIBs surviving in the wild in Kutch, there was no possibility of a fertile egg in the natural setting.</p><p>Scientists from the Wildlife Institute of India took an arduous 770 km road journey to transport an incubated egg from a breeding centre in Rajasthan to the desired nesting site in Kutch, leading to the conservation success, the Union Environment Ministry said here on Saturday.</p> .Saving the great Indian bustard without sacrificing the power grid.<p>A female GIB, tagged in August 2025, laid an infertile egg in Kutch, where the local population had lost all its males long ago.</p><p>A captive-bred GIB egg from the conservation breeding programme was transported by road for over 19 hours from Sam in Rajasthan to Naliya in Gujarat in a handheld portable incubator and was successfully replaced in the nest on March 22.</p><p>The female completed the incubation of the fertile egg and successfully hatched the chick on March 26. The field monitoring team observed the young chick being reared by its foster mother in its natural habitat.</p> .<p>“This is a significant achievement in the recovery of the critically endangered species,” said Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav.</p><p>The number of birds in two conservation breeding centres at Sam and Ramdevra in Rajasthan has reached 73, with the addition of five new chicks during the current breeding season. Nearly half of these birds are from eggs collected from the wild and the rest are bred in captivity</p><p>Yadav said India would move toward rewilding birds in the near future as part of long-term conservation planning.</p><p>India’s GIB population has shrunk drastically over the years, with fewer than 150 of these birds remaining in the wild, most of them in Rajasthan. Around 130 of them are in the Desert National Park and the Indian Army’s Pokhran firing range at Jaisalmer.</p> .<p>Out of the 26 bustard species across the globe, as many as 15 (58%) are threatened or near-threatened. The situation is more severe for Asia, especially India, where all three resident bustard species - the GIB, Lesser Florican and Bengal Florican—are critically endangered.</p><p>The historical decline of the birds was largely due to trophy hunting, which intensified alongside the development of intensive agriculture and energy infrastructure</p><p>The Supreme Court, in an order last December, prioritised an area of 14,013 sq km in Rajasthan and 740 sq km in Gujarat for bustard conservation. The apex court asked the government to complete all mitigation measures within two years.</p>
<p>New Delhi: After a decade, a Great Indian Bustard chick was born in <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/india/gujarat">Gujarat</a>, raising hopes for the species' recovery in the grasslands of Kutch.</p><p>With only three female GIBs surviving in the wild in Kutch, there was no possibility of a fertile egg in the natural setting.</p><p>Scientists from the Wildlife Institute of India took an arduous 770 km road journey to transport an incubated egg from a breeding centre in Rajasthan to the desired nesting site in Kutch, leading to the conservation success, the Union Environment Ministry said here on Saturday.</p> .Saving the great Indian bustard without sacrificing the power grid.<p>A female GIB, tagged in August 2025, laid an infertile egg in Kutch, where the local population had lost all its males long ago.</p><p>A captive-bred GIB egg from the conservation breeding programme was transported by road for over 19 hours from Sam in Rajasthan to Naliya in Gujarat in a handheld portable incubator and was successfully replaced in the nest on March 22.</p><p>The female completed the incubation of the fertile egg and successfully hatched the chick on March 26. The field monitoring team observed the young chick being reared by its foster mother in its natural habitat.</p> .<p>“This is a significant achievement in the recovery of the critically endangered species,” said Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav.</p><p>The number of birds in two conservation breeding centres at Sam and Ramdevra in Rajasthan has reached 73, with the addition of five new chicks during the current breeding season. Nearly half of these birds are from eggs collected from the wild and the rest are bred in captivity</p><p>Yadav said India would move toward rewilding birds in the near future as part of long-term conservation planning.</p><p>India’s GIB population has shrunk drastically over the years, with fewer than 150 of these birds remaining in the wild, most of them in Rajasthan. Around 130 of them are in the Desert National Park and the Indian Army’s Pokhran firing range at Jaisalmer.</p> .<p>Out of the 26 bustard species across the globe, as many as 15 (58%) are threatened or near-threatened. The situation is more severe for Asia, especially India, where all three resident bustard species - the GIB, Lesser Florican and Bengal Florican—are critically endangered.</p><p>The historical decline of the birds was largely due to trophy hunting, which intensified alongside the development of intensive agriculture and energy infrastructure</p><p>The Supreme Court, in an order last December, prioritised an area of 14,013 sq km in Rajasthan and 740 sq km in Gujarat for bustard conservation. The apex court asked the government to complete all mitigation measures within two years.</p>
