SC seeks update on Great Indian Bustard

Context

The Supreme Court of India sought an update from the committee formed for making power lines underground in Rajasthan and Gujarat ordered a year ago.

About Great Indian Bustard (GIB)

• The Great Indian Bustard is the State bird of Rajasthan and is considered India’s most critically endangered bird.
• The birds weigh 14-15 kilograms each and can reach a height of up to 4 feet, making them too heavy to change their course mid-way when they wander too close to power lines.
• It is considered the flagship grassland species, representing the health of the grassland ecology.
• GIB is one of the most critically threatened species in India, with less than 150 birds left in the wild.
• GIBs are one of the heaviest flying birds in India.
• Only two districts in Rajasthan — Jaisalmer and Barmer— have a breeding GIB population in the wild.
• The bird can also be found in very small numbers in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.
• The bird is under constant threats due to collision/electrocution with power transmission lines, hunting (still prevalent in Pakistan), habitat loss and alteration as a result of widespread agricultural expansion, etc.

Threat to the species

• The habitat of the state bird of Rajasthan — the Great Indian Bustard (GIB) or Godavan — is under threat due to the zigzag web of high-tension power lines through the sacred groves of Jaisalmer.
  • The sacred groves of the Degrai Oran and adjoining area are few of the last remaining habitats of the GIB.
• Wind farms and solar parks in the area have encroached upon the grasslands and the high-tension power lines criss-crossing through several points in the region pose a threat of electrocution of the big birds.
• SC had ordered the power companies in the states of Rajasthan and Gujarat to make the high-tension power lines underground so that the large birds do not get caught in the web.
• Around 122 of the total 150 GIBs found in the country were in Jaisalmer district of Rajasthan, according to a 2018 GIB count. 
  • The rest were scattered in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka.