Rapid Fire
Project Great Indian Bustard (GIB)
- 16 Mar 2026
- 2 min read
Project Great Indian Bustard (GIB) entered the fourth year of its captive breeding programme with the hatching of two new chicks at the Conservation Breeding Centre in Rajasthan, raising the total captive population to 70 birds.
Great Indian Bustard
- About: It is India’s most critically endangered bird and the State bird of Rajasthan, regarded as a flagship species representing the health of grassland ecosystems.
- GIB is one among four bustard species found in India, alongside the Lesser Florican, Bengal Florican, and Macqueen's Bustard.
- It is omnivorous and vulnerable to power line collisions due to lack of frontal vision.
- Distribution: It is one of the heaviest flying birds in the world, and mainly found in Rajasthan’s Thar Desert, with small populations in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh.
- Conservation Status: IUCN Red List (Critically Endangered), CITES (Appendix I), Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) (Appendix I), and Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 (Schedule I).
- Conservation Efforts: Project GIB (launched in 2018) is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Environment, Wildlife Institute of India, and Rajasthan Forest Department.
- The species is covered under the Integrated Development of Wildlife Habitats scheme of MoEFCC to support recovery and conservation measures.
- A breeding centre was established in 2019 at Desert National Park, Jaisalmer by MoEFCC, Rajasthan Government and the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) to create a captive population and release birds into the wild.
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