Great Indian Bustard : Environment for UPSC Exams


Great Indian Bustard : Environment for UPSC Exams


  • The Great Indian Bustard or Indian bustard is a bustard found in India and the adjoining regions of Pakistan.

  • A large bird with a horizontal body and long bare legs, giving it an ostrich like appearance.

  • Their population is on decline due to hunting, poaching, collisions with high tension electric wires, fast moving vehicles and free-ranging dogs in villages, and loss of its habitat, which consists of large expanses of dry grassland and scrub.

  • They also face decline due to alteration as a result of widespread agricultural expansion and mechanized farming, infrastructural development such as irrigation, roads, electric poles, as well as mining and industrialization.

  • They are Listed in Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, in the CMS Convention and in Appendix I of CITES, as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List and the National Wildlife Action Plan (2002-2016).

  • It has also been identified as one of the species for the recovery programme under the Integrated Development of Wildlife Habitats of the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India.

  • These birds are often found associated in the same habitat as blackbuck.

  • The bird is found in Rajasthan, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat states of India. Desert National Park, near Jaisalmer and coastal grasslands of the Abdasa and Mandvi talukas of Kutch District of Gujarat support some populations.

  • In a bid to develop a conservation plan for the critically endangered Great Indian Bustard, non-governmental organisations and the Rajasthan government have come together to undertake a dog census in the Thar region.

  • In order to protect the endangered Great Indian Bustard, locally known as “Godawan”, the Desert National Park authorities have developed a mobile application to monitor the movements of the avian.

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