Birth of chick boosts India's efforts to revive great Indian bustard in natural habitat
The 770km road travel saw the transportation of an incubated egg in a hand-held incubator from a breeding centre in Rajasthan’s Sam to the nesting site in the wild in Kutch, Gujarat, through a halt-free corridor on 22 March.
India's efforts to revive the critically endangered great Indian bustard (GIB) in a natural habitat got a boost when a chick was born on Thursday (26 March) after the egg was transported from a captive breeding centre to a nest following a 19-hour arduous road journey without a break.
The 770km road travel saw the transportation of an incubated egg in a hand-held incubator from a breeding centre in Rajasthan's Sam to the nesting site in the wild in Kutch, Gujarat, through a halt-free corridor on 22 March.
A female GIB completed the incubation of the fertile egg and successfully hatched the chick on 26 March, with the field monitoring team observing the young chick being reared by its foster mother in its natural habitat, Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav announced today.
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"We are keeping our fingers crossed for the survival of the chick," he said in a social media post.
Yadav termed the development a "significant milestone" in the conservation of GIB in the wild and Gujarat witnessed the birth of a chick after a decade, through a novel conservation measure known as the "jumpstart approach."
He said the effort was planned a year back, which was coordinated by the Ministry with the State Forest Departments of Rajasthan and Gujarat and the Wildlife Institute of India.
According to Yadav, the importance of the birth of the chick in a natural habitat is due to the fact that in Gujarat, only three female GIBs are surviving in the grasslands of Kutch, leaving no possibility of having a fertile egg in the wild, he said.
The number of birds in conservation breeding centres at Sam and Ramdevra in Rajasthan has reached 73, with the addition of five new chicks during the current breeding season.
Yadav said India is now moving ahead towards the rewilding of birds in the near future as part of long-term conservation planning.
In a social media post, Yadav said the project to conserve the GIB in its natural habitats, including Gujarat, was formally launched in 2016.
