Experts hail breakthrough to save native birds

Last month there was good news about the great Indian bustard, a critically endangered bird found mainly in India.

Wildlife officials in the western state of Rajasthan have successfully hatched a chick through artificial insemination for the first time.

At one of two breeding centers in the city of Jaisalmer, a lone adult male was trained to produce sperm without mating and then used the sperm to mature a male at a second center about 200 kilometers (124 miles) away. Female conception.

Officials say the development is important because it opens the possibility of creating a sperm bank.

Habitat loss, poaching and overhead power line collisions have affected the bustard over the years. Their numbers have dropped from more than 1,000 in the 1960s to around 150 currently.

Most of them are found in Jaisalmer, so conservation activists say the bird’s urban habitat should be protected. But the land is also prime real estate for renewable energy companies, presenting authorities with unique conservation challenges.

The great Indian bustard may not be as famous as the peacock, India’s national bird, but it’s no less impressive, said Sumit Dookia, a conservation ecologist who has studied the bird for nearly a decade. This huge bird weighs 15kg to 18kg and is one of the largest flying birds in India.

It was once abundant in the country and was found in at least 11 states, but today, its numbers are restricted to Rajasthan, while a few may be found in Karnataka to the south and Gujarat to the west.

This shy bird plays an important role in the food chain, preying on rodents, snakes and other pests. It is also the state bird of Rajasthan and is known locally as “Godawan”.

But some of the bird’s unique evolutionary features conflict with human intervention, leaving it vulnerable to extinction.

For one, the Indian bustard has good peripheral vision but poor frontal vision, making it difficult for them to detect wires unless they fly too close to them. Their huge size makes it difficult for them to change their flight path quickly, and they will eventually collide with the cable and die.

“As the birds spend a lot of time on land, their vision may develop like this,” Mr Dukia said, adding that it also lays its eggs on the ground, leaving no nest except for the mother’s watchful eye or any other form of protection, which may cause it to develop good side vision.

The Indian Great Bustard also has unique breeding habits. The bird lays one egg at a time and takes care of its offspring for the next two years.

“Because it matures at around four years old and has a lifespan of 12 to 15 years, it only lays about four to five eggs in its lifetime, many of which are destroyed by predators,” Mr Dukia said.

Environmentalists say the Indian bustard’s habitat in Jaisalmer has been taken over by solar and wind farms over the past few years, leading to an increase in flight accidents.

“Increased human activity has also created more filth, attracting stray dogs, which kill the birds or destroy their eggs,” Mr Dukia said.

To increase the bird’s population, the Rajasthan government, in collaboration with the federal government and the Wildlife Institute of India, set up a conservation breeding center in Sam city in 2018. It said another breeding center would be set up in Ramdevra village in 2022.

As a first step, the researchers collected eggs found in the wild and hatched them in an incubation center. “Currently, there are 45 birds in the two centers, 14 of which are artificially raised chicks (including those born through artificial insemination),” he added.

The plan is to further increase the bird’s numbers before eventually releasing them into the wild. But conservationists say that’s easier said than done.

Mr Dukia said this was because the birds born in these breeding centers had imprinted themselves on human researchers (in other words, they formed close bonds with their human caregivers) and lost about 60-70 % survival ability in the wild.

“Human imprinting is necessary to feed and handle the birds, but it also strips them of their natural instincts. Rewilding them will be extremely challenging, especially if there is no habitat for the birds to release ,” he added.

The loss of habitat has also led to another problem: Researchers have noticed that birds that used to migrate across state lines have almost completely stopped doing so. Even in Jaisalmer, birds are spread across two areas – Pokhran to the east of the city and the Desert National Park to the west – with little cross-migration, Dukiya said.

He added that the birds had most likely stopped migrating long distances due to flight accidents. This increases the risk of inbreeding, which can lead to birth defects.

“Therefore, the only solution to protect the great bustard is to protect its natural habitat,” he said.

But a Supreme Court decision in April has conservationists uneasy.

The court overturned an earlier interim order that directed the states of Rajasthan and Gujarat to prioritize moving power cables underground in the bustard’s habitat. The order has caused an uproar among renewable energy companies, who say it will cost them billions of rupees and almost kill their business.

In its latest judgment, the court noted that people have the right to be protected from the harmful effects of climate change and that moving large stretches of power cables underground may not be feasible for companies from a monetary and technical perspective.

It also directs the formation of a committee to study the feasibility of moving power lines and the efficacy of bird diverters – devices with reflectors attached to power lines to alert to the presence of birds.

While businesses welcomed the Supreme Court’s ruling, conservationists and some legal experts said it was problematic because it pitted one just cause against another.

Ecologist Debadityo Sinha said: “This verdict highlights a misunderstanding of the interplay between climate change, biodiversity and development issues.” write in column.

He noted that many densely populated cities in India have underground power lines and that other states have taken such measures in the past to protect other bird species. He also noted that while moving power cables underground would be costly, it would likely represent a small portion of the company’s total revenue.

Mr Dukiya said one of the reasons renewable energy companies are flocking to Rajasthan is the low cost of land.

“There is also little research on how these renewable energy farms will impact the state’s climate and ecology in the long term,” he said.

“So it’s not just the future of birds that hangs in the balance, but also the future of humans.”

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