The vulnerable Great Indian Bustard

Today's paper and this news item in the BBC a couple of days ago, show the vulnerability of the Great indian Bustard in India today.

A report on the Jaisalmer Desert National Park by Mr Ramanan, had highlighted this bird.

Great Indian Bustard - Photo by Mr Ramanan

BBC News - Concern over plans to downgrade Indian national park reports that there is pressure to de-classify the Karera bird sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh. It is an interesting article as it documents the man-creature conflict in India, so typical of the situation for all birds and animals that cannot survive with us.

The authorities in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh are under pressure to declassify a national park because much of its rare bird life is believed to have been lost forever. Locals eager to have free use of the land complain the park's special status prevents them from doing so.

But critics say any move to downgrade Karera bird sanctuary - created in 1981, principally to help save the Great Indian bustard - would be an admission that conservation efforts there have failed.

If ratified by the central government and the Supreme Court, Karera will become the country's first national park to lose its official recognition.

Conjugal success
The residents of 33 villages in the 200 sq-km (124 sq-mile) sanctuary argue the Great Indian bustard has not been seen in more than 10 years because of "habitat destruction".

Villagers say no rare wildlife exists any more. The Great Indian bustard is one of the world's heaviest flying birds. It lost out to the peacock when India's national bird was decided - reportedly because of its tricky spelling and the peacock's more attractive looks. Apart from Madhya Pradesh, it is found in the states of Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Gujarat.

At Dihaliya, a village on the banks of Dihaliya lake, villagers explain how the sanctuary has affected their lives and livelihoods. They are not allowed to buy, sell or make any significant changes to the land and cannot mine it, or carry out any kind of construction work - even building irrigation canals is not easy.

Jawahar Singh, the village head, says there are more than 35,000 people living in villages adjoining the sanctuary. "Our sons cannot find brides as they cannot raise money by selling land if required," he said. Manoj Siwari, from Phatehpur village, is 25 years old and says he has been turned down five times by prospective brides. He blames the national park for his failure to marry. "Please declassify this sanctuary so that we can organise our lives," he said.

"There are no rare birds here any more. We are being held to ransom unnecessarily. During marriage discussions, people criticise us for our inability to raise money. It is not fair."

Hostility
Great Indian bustards were once found in great numbers in Karera - an area characterised by semi-arid grasslands. In an attempt to save the 15 or so birds left, the area was classified as a sanctuary in 1981. The population grew for a few years to up to 40 birds, but it has since dropped steadily and not a single Great Indian bustard has been sighted since 1994. In view of this, the state government has sent a proposal to the central government to declassify the sanctuary.

GK Sharma, a forest officer, says villagers' hostility has affected conservation efforts.
"When we built watch towers, they tore them down. They do not kill the animals but do not report any illegal activity either. It was difficult to build relations with the residents as they felt forest officers were friends of the birds and therefore were their enemies."

However, it was not always like this. Asad Rahmani, director of Bombay Natural History Society in Mumbai, worked for more than six years in the sanctuary in the late 1980s and early 1990s. "The bird does not mind farming land and there was no poaching in this area," he said.

"But constant habitat destruction is the main reason for its disappearance. We had given a detailed plan to protect it but nothing was done. In fact the figures of 35 to 40 bustards were inflated."

'Fix responsibility'
The bird prefers walking to flying and requires undisturbed nesting areas. If the egg or offspring do not survive, bustards are known to desert that particular area - if the offspring survives, they will return to the same place.

Mechanised farming and over-grazing by cattle and sheep - combined with increasing human encroachment - are the main reasons cited for the bird's habitat being disturbed.

The bird has disappeared over a period of time. Its disappearance from the sanctuary is a cause of concern, wildlife experts say, and is an indicator of the health of the country's grassland ecosystems. One of the recommendations in Dr Rahmani's plan is to "fix responsibility" for the disappearance of the bird. Activists say those to blame should be held to account.

"The bird has disappeared over a period of time. Something could have been done earlier. It is impossible to hold any one person responsible," says Alok Kumar, chief conservator of forests.
Dr Rahmani suggests protecting pockets of about 200 hectares in different parts of the park to rebuild a habitat after it loses its special status - in which only traditional farming methods not resisted by the birds would be allowed.

The conflict between conservation and promoting the needs of farmers has intensified because of government apathy over the years. The vast expanse of the Karera bird sanctuary looks parched and barren in mid-summer. Herds of cattle and sheep graze every few kilometres. This used to be the bustards' breeding season in Karera but not any more.

The golden bird gave up on this home many years ago. It is a scenario which would be a tragedy if repeated in India's other national parks - home to some of the world's most endangered animals, including the tiger.

An article in today's Chennai edition of Times of India reported that Andhra irrigation projects spell doom for birds at the Rollapadu sanctuary in AP

Andhra Pradesh’s only bustard sanctuary located at Rollapadu in Kurnool district could soon become history with the population of this bird species dropping from 60 to just 10. In fact, in the last three years alone, the Rollapadu sanctuary which was one among the best of the six bustard sanctuaries in India for long, has lost over a dozen of these endangered birds to government schemes.
Wildlife experts point out that the change in landscape of the sanctuary from grassland to wetland due to populist irrigation schemes of the government, has led to this serious loss. With paddy fields replacing groundnut plants around the sanctuary, the habitat is no longer conducive for the great Indian bustard that is accustomed to stonestrewn, sparsely vegetated land, they say. Even unwarranted afforestation near the sanctuary, spread roughly over 9 sq km, has added to the mess. Speculations are that many of these birds have migrated to the sanctuary in neighbouring Karnataka while those left in the state have stopped breeding due to lack of a favourable habitat. Either way, the state is fast losing its rich bustard population and might soon be left with none.
“The first damage was done when a reservoir was built close to the sanctuary as part of the Telugu-Ganga project about eight years ago. That changed the area into a wetland and villagers started paddy cultivation around the place,” said C Srinivasulu, associate professor of zoology, Osmania University who has worked on the subject at Rollapadu. He added, “The change in cropping pattern wiped out all groundnut trees that usually provide fodder for bustards.” Prof

Srinivasulu fears that at this rate, Rollapadu could soon join the list of sanctuaries such as Nanaj in Maharashtra and Karera in Madhya Pradesh that have lost all their bustards over the years. For some enthusiasts it is the unnecessary afforestation programmes of the government that have led to this destruction of bustard habitat.
They claim that budgets earmarked for such plantation drives are “randomly” spent by the department without much thought given to such matters. “Saplings of several fastgrowing trees have been planted around the sanctuary only because the department had to somehow spend the money sanctioned for the same,” said a member of the World Wildlife Foundation’s AP chapter adding, “This has raised the groundwater level of the area and changed the landscape. Consequently, we have lost many bustards.”
A less popular theory about the dwindling number of bustards is the increase in black buck population in Rollapadu.

In March 2010, a couple of MNS members had visited Rollapadu and enjoyed the grasslands. They did see plenty of blackbuck, but also wolves, several raptors and other bird life.

They have a whole album of Rolapadu pictures here.

In India, with great difficulty, land is designated as sanctuary land, and it would be a complete and utterly retrogade step to de-classify these lands, don't you think?

Does it not make more sense to try to revive these areas, rather than de-classify them?

28th June update:

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Jairam Ramesh has appealed to the Gujarat government to increase their efforts in saving the grasslands of Adbassa in Kutch, Gujarat for the sake of the bustard.