Firefly for Great Indian Bustard

• 24 Dec 2020

Why in News

The Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) along with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) India has come up with a unique initiative a “firefly bird diverter” for overhead power lines in areas where Great Indian Bustard (GIB) populations are found in the wild.

• The Wildlife Conservation Society is a non-governmental organization headquartered in New York, that aims to conserve the world's largest wild places in 14 priority regions.

Key Points

• About:
  
  • Firefly bird diverters are flaps installed on power lines. They work as reflectors for bird species like the GIB. Birds can spot them from a distance of about 50 meters and change their path of flight to avoid collision with power lines.
    
    • Smaller birds can change their direction but for larger bird species, it is difficult because of their body weight and other factors.
    • Since great Indian bustards are heavy birds with limited frontal vision, they find it difficult to change their course of flight swiftly even if they spot a live wire.
  • The diverters are called fireflies because they look like fireflies from a distance, shining on power lines in the night.
• Background:
  
  • According to a report by the MoEFCC, power lines (especially high-voltage transmission lines) with multiple overhead wires, are the most important current threat for GIBs in the Thar region, and are causing unsustainably high mortality.
  • The Supreme Court of India, in a recent hearing, directed that power lines in GIB landscapes should be placed underground.

Great Indian Bustard (GIB)

• About:
  
  • It is one of the heaviest flying birds in the world.
  • Scientific Name: Ardeotis nigriceps
• Habitat:
  
  • Bustards generally favour flat open landscapes with minimal visual obstruction and disturbance, therefore adapt well in grasslands.
  • Its population is confined mostly to Rajasthan and Gujarat. Small populations occur in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
• Protection Status:
  
  • International Union for Conservation of Nature status: Critically Endangered
  • Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES): Appendix1
  • Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972: Schedule 1
  • It is one of the species for the recovery programme under the Integrated Development of Wildlife Habitats of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate change.
  • The Great Indian Bustard, Asian Elephant and Bengal Florican have been included in Appendix I of the UN Convention on Migratory Species at the 13^th Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) in Gandhinagar (Gujarat).
• Threats:
  
  • Collision/electrocution with power transmission lines,
  • Hunting (still prevalent in Pakistan),
  • Irrigation and farming technology
  • Mining
  • Wind turbines and Solar farms (photovoltaic power stations)
  • Plantation of exotic shrub/tree species in deserts and grasslands in the name of afforestation

Source: TH