Rewilding the Bustard: Inside India's Plan to Save a Critically Endangered Bird

The Main Story

In December 2023, a female Great Indian Bustard named 'Alpha', raised entirely in captivity, was released into a monitored enclosure in Rajasthan’s Desert National Park. This event represents the first tangible outcome of a long-term strategy to pull a species, whose wild population has dwindled to fewer than 150 individuals, back from the edge of extinction.

Why is the Great Indian Bustard on the brink?

The decline of the GIB is driven by the systematic destruction and fragmentation of its habitat—the vast, open grasslands of western and central India. These ecosystems have been progressively converted into agricultural land and industrial zones. According to the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), from a presence across 11 states, the bird is now primarily confined to Rajasthan, which holds an estimated 120 of the remaining individuals. The most acute modern threat is collision with high-tension power lines, particularly those associated with renewable energy projects. A WII report submitted to the National Green Tribunal estimated that power lines cause approximately 18 GIB deaths annually in the Thar region. The GIB, being a heavy bird with poor frontal vision, cannot easily detect and manoeuvre away from these wires, making this the leading cause of adult mortality.

What is the 'Project GIB' conservation strategy?

Faced with a non-viable wild population, the government's strategy under 'Project GIB' is two-pronged. The first is in-situ conservation: protecting the remaining wild birds and their habitats. The second is ex-situ conservation through the captive breeding programme that began in 2019. This programme, a collaboration between the MoEFCC, WII, Rajasthan, and international experts, aims to create a healthy, genetically diverse 'assurance population' in captivity that can be used to repopulate the wild. Under this programme, eggs collected from the wild were artificially incubated and chicks hand-reared. This effort has successfully established a captive population of 29 birds, from which 'Alpha' was the first to be selected for the rewilding experiment.