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Encouraged, no doubt, by the Supreme Court judgment of April 16, 2013, which is loaded in favour of implementing such conservation-enabling, management practices which will staunch the decline in and eventually stabilize the populations of all critically threatened species of our wildlife, the gutsy Bina Kak, the Minister of Forests, Rajasthan, moved with alacrity. Within days, she put in place "Project Great Indian Bustard" (GIB), a bird endemic to India whose numbers have dwindled abysmally to about 200, only. It was but natural that Rajasthan should have taken the lead as currently the bulk of surviving Great Indian Bustards inhabit that state. The project launch was conveyed through an excellent photo-image of one majestic-looking GIB female, taking up one half page of The Hindu (June 6, 2013), showing the bird pleading as it were, with her fellow countrymen: "Let me Fly", that is, asking simply for the fundamental Right to Life. Embedded in that advertisement is also the realisation that garnering of people's sympathy must be the cornerstone of any wildlife conservation strategy. From the details of the project made public, it is evident that it has been planned with great care, indicating specified time-lines for creating the infrastructure essential for a reasonable chance for the GIB to multiply to the viable population level, for the long-term survival of the species in India. Rightly so, the revival strategy appears hinged around the breeding zoology of the GIB, so as to minimise those extraneous factors which cause fatalities during incubation and growth of newly born chicks to adulthood, year after year. Slow breeder The bird is among the slowest of breeders as it lays a single egg (occasionally two) and that too in any shallow depression upon the ground, devoid of any natural protection against inadvertent damage to the egg by grazing cattle or the browsing black buck and chinkara, during incubation. This factor is squarely addressed by the project by creating suitably large, fenced enclosures, within the confines of the Desert National Park, at Jaisalmer, for which purpose the first trench of Rs 12.5 crore has been released with the promise of another Rs 5 crore with the stipulation to fully utilise the entire sum by March 31, 2014. It is believed by experts that there are 40 to 50 GIBs in the Desert National Park . Assuming that from among them, 25 to 30 female GIBs incubate under the favourably created surroundings, we may add optimally 20 adult GIBs to the surviving lot, each year. Provided Kak's successors do not falter from the fundamentals of the project mission, we ought to double the current GIB count, hopefully by 2025. State intervention Almost every state
intervention aimed at enhancing the societal well-being quotient,
brings in its wake new elements which adversely impact the growth and
even the very survival of a host of other living organisms of a given
area. A classic example of this cause-and-effect syndrome has been the
Pan-India, steady decline of the GIB numbering in thousands, to a mere
200, in the 60-year period, post 1950. This calamity was the product
of our first major initiative to attain food sustainability, by
bringing under agriculture the vast uncultivated tracts of Rajasthan.
In the process, the GIB habitat was severely
fragmented and ultimately shrivelled to less than 5 per cent of its
pre-1950 status. This development, coupled with the huge influx of
farming communities and fire-arms, led to illicit hunting of GIBs, far
in excess of the birds' reproductive, recouping capacity.
Fortunately, once the voices of GIB-Cassandras reached the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's ears, she responded immediately by creating the Desert National Park, near Jaisalmer. It had the potential of a "seeding-nursery," not only for the GIB but equally also for the elegant chinkara, the colourful painted sand-grouse and a host of other living forms comprising the desert eco-system. Voice of sanity There will be vociferous protests against the pledging of crores on saving a bird at the cost of malnourished millions. Be that as it may, it is time to heed voices of sanity and to remind ourselves of the timeless warning against excessive hunting by the "White Man", sounded by the Red Indian Chief Seattle in 1854, through a letter to the US President Franklin Pearce, saying that "Once all the birds and beasts are gone, MAN will surely die from a great loneliness of the spirit". The booming moan During courtship, the display with distended throat-pouch, helps the GIB pump up the moan. Females can hear this up to a kilometre and renowned ornithologist Salim Ali’s term, "Booming Moan" has since acquired universal acceptance.
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