Written by Sourabha Rao
There is an effortless grace some beings embody, like it were that simple, in the way they stand, walk, and just are. One such rare, immense being is the great Indian bustard (GIB).
Walking as if it never flinches away from being gallant, the crown of its head is a distinct black, starkly contrasting with its head and long neck. With a brown body, long and bare legs, this bustard can stand up to one-metre tallness. One of the heaviest flying avian species in the world, this stately ground-dwelling bird is omnivorous. It is the state bird of Rajasthan, and is called ‘Godavan’. It is the largest of the four bustard species found in India, the other three being the lesser florican, the MacQueen’s bustard and the Bengal florican.
Art: Aditi Rajan
Once an inhabitant of arid grasslands and scrublands across the Indian subcontinent, the GIB is on the brink of extinction. In India, it was historically found in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Today it is limited to secluded locations in Rajasthan (shared with Pakistan), Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh. As a symbol of the desert ecosystem, the GIB is found mainly in the Thar Desert, spreading in parts of Jaisalmer.
GIB’s populations have greatly declined due to hunting (for meat and sport), loss and extensive degradation of its habitat, and with emerging threats from changing land-use, collision with high-tension power lines, and depredation by free-ranging dogs and pigs. Birdlife International uplisted this bustard from ‘Endangered’ to ‘Critically Endangered’ in 2011, as the numbers are known to have dwindled from 90% of its former range (an estimated 1,260 in 1969). Its population was estimated to be fewer than 250 individuals in 2008. Today, approximately 150 individuals are known to be left, almost exclusively in India.[source]
The GIB was among the top game-birds and was considered a delicacy by British soldiers in India. Mughal ruler Babur was once known to have proclaimed that while the flesh of the leg of some fowls and of the breast of others is excellent, the flesh of every part of this bustard is delicious.
On the other hand, the admiration for GIBs grandeur and significance came as no surprise when the great Indian ornithologist Salim Ali had suggested that the bustard be considered a potential candidate for the stature as ‘national bird’ of India.
One could very well imagine how moved one will be – to a contemplative reticence – upon getting even as much a glimpse of a GIB in the wild. And as if seeing one itself isn’t short of a miracle, it would be no exaggeration to say that seeing a male GIB during the breeding season is a spectacle any avid birder covets. For a male GIB has a gular pouch (defined as an area of featherless skin on birds that joins the lower mandible of the beak (or bill) to the bird's neck). This pouch helps the bird produce a booming, resonant mating call to attract females, and is known to be heard from a few hundred metres’ distance.
If imagining only a couple of hundreds of human beings left on the planet can be utterly distressing and can jolt us out of our complacency and lead us to a frenzy of action to save ourselves, why shouldn’t such an existing reality of a fellow living thing inspire us to conserve it for posterity? It should, and it has.
The Central Government launched the GIB species recovery programme in 2015. Under this initiative, the Wildlife Institute of India and the Rajasthan Forest Department jointly set up breeding centres to harvest GIB eggs. Incubated artificially, the hatchlings are raised in a controlled environment. More and more local communities are now aware of the significance of the GIB and are getting involved in various conservation programmes.
With all this acting as great momentum, there is a long way to go. All the ongoing attempts to conserve the GIB are, collectively, the insurance against the threat of extinction. And going forward, it is our obligation to do everything we can in our might to keep this mighty bird alive and thriving, so it continues to be the gallant, grand symbol of our grasslands.
1. Lesser florican:
The lesser florican’s population was estimated at c.2,200 birds in the mid-1990s, and based on this, the number of mature individuals is put at c.1,500.[3a] Is known to breed in India – Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. Some dispersal is recorded in south-east India in the non-breeding season.[3b] Estimates reveal that there are 340 male lesser floricans left in India.
2. MacQueen’s bustard:
This bustard occurs from the east of the Sinai Peninsula to the Caspian Sea and extends east to the Gobi Desert in Mongolia. Birds from the northern populations winter further south in Pakistan (mainly in western Balochistan) and in the dry arid zone of western India. Vagrants have historically been found as far west and north as Britain and as far south as northern Kerala (Kanhangad). In the 19th century, vagrants were seen as far west as Great Britain. The MacQueen’s bustard populations are known to have decreased by 20 to 50% between 1984 and 2004, primarily due to hunting and land-use changes.
3. Bengal florican:
Native to the Indian subcontinent, Cambodia, and Vietnam, the Bengal florican is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List because fewer than 1,000 individuals were estimated to be alive as of 2017. In the Indian subcontinent, it occurs from Uttar Pradesh in India through the Terai of Nepal to Assam and Arunachal Pradesh in India, and historically to Bangladesh. The Southeast Asian population of this florican occurs in Cambodia and adjacent southern Vietnam.
 Running out of time? The great Indian bustard Ardeotis nigriceps—status, viability, and conservation strategies
 The great Indian bustard has a new ally: its human neighbours
[3a] Lesser Florican population
[3b] Lesser Florican population dispersal
 Taxonomy of the Houbara Bustard Chlamydotis undulata subspecies considered on the basis of sexual display and genetic divergence
 Biology of Houbara Bustard (Chlamydotis undulata macqueenii) with reference to Baluchistan
 Houbara Bustard Chlamydotis undulata: a rare record from Kerala
 Bengal florican population