Next Phase of Bustard Conservation | 03 Jul 2024

Why in News?

Recently, The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has approved Rs 56 crore for the next phase of the conservation of Great Indian Bustard (GIB) and Lesser Florican.

Key Points

• The plan includes habitat development, in-situ conservation, completing the conservation breeding center, releasing captive-bred birds, and other activities.
• The National CAMPA (Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority) had recommended the Wildlife Institute of India’s (WII) proposal to the governing body.
• Plans to recover the species first started in 2013 under the National Bustard Recovery Plan, which later gave way to the Bustard Recovery Project in 2016.
  • Later, in July 2018, a tripartite agreement was signed between MoEFCC, Rajasthan forest department and WII.
• As part of the project run by the three parties, two GIB conservation breeding centres and one Lesser Florican centre are functioning in Rajasthan’s Sam, Ramdevra and Sorsan respectively.
  • The team at Sam and Ramdevra built up a founder population by collecting GIB eggs from the wild, which were incubated and hatched artificially in the facility.
  • Currently, there are approximately 140 GIBs and fewer than 1,000 Lesser Floricans left in the wild.