There were no Activity Reports uploaded. Based on the activities of other organisations following is being reported:
a.With less than 150 individual birds remaining, RIST and WCS-India have launched a project to support the Rajasthan Forest Department towards recovery of the Great Indian Bustards in the Thar Desert in January 2020.
b. Wildlife Institute of India brought out publications: Dutta, S., Kher, V., Uddin, M., Supakar, S., Karkaria, T., Gupta, T., Paul, I., Pandey, D., Varma, V., Verma, V., Phasalkar, P., Khanra, A., Jora, V. S., Kataria, P. S., Chhangani, A. K., Bipin, C. M., Jhala, Y. V. 2022. Status survey of migratory birds and key wildlife in Bikaner district, Rajasthan. Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun | TR No/2021/24 pdf (16.8 mb)
Jhala, Y.V., Dutta, S.. Bhardwaj, G.S., Karkaria, T., Bipin, C.M. et al. 2020. Conserving Great Indian Bustard Landscapes through Scientific Understanding and Participatory Planning. Final Technical Report Submitted to Rajasthan State Pollution Control Board. Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun 248001, India
c.WII has also been implementing the Habitat improvement and conservation breeding programme under following objectives:1. Conservation Breeding
To secure captive populations of great Indian bustard and lesser florican as insurance against extinction and (if possible) reintroduce captive birds in wild
2. Applied research
To prioritize conservation areas, characterizing threats, assess population and habitat status, assess effectiveness of management actions, understand local communities’ livelihood concerns to balance land use and conservation goals, and understand population genetics to inform conservation management
3. Capacity-building and outreach
To improve protection enforcement, sensitize stakeholders on bustard conservation importance and requirements, and incentivize local land users to adopt bustard-friendly land uses
4. Pilot implementation of surgical habitat management
To demonstrate best habitat improvement practices through experimental interventions that can be replicated by State Forest Departments
d. The Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) along with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) India has come up with a unique initiative called “Firefly Bird Diverter” for overhead power lines.• These are flaps installed on power lines and work as reflectors for bird species.
• The diverters are called fireflies because they look like fireflies from a distance, shining on power lines in the night.
• Birds can spot them from a distance of about 50 meters and change their path of flight to avoid collision with power lines.
• The detectors have been installed along two stretches of approximately 6.5 km, selected between Chacha to Dholiya villages in the Pokhran tehsil after consultations with the Rajasthan Forest Department.
• 1,813 firefly bird diverters are being installed in this stretch.
• This conservation model has been endorsed by experts from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Species Survival Commission’s (SSC) Bustard Specialist Group.
e. On April 19, 2021, the Hon’ble Supreme Court passed an order on the PIL (Public Interest Litigation) to place underground all the power lines passing through the identified GIB habitats in Rajasthan and Gujarat. Also, the Supreme Court clearly gave a timeline of one year to complete the work mentioned above. It also ordered that all the future power lines must go underground in the areas identified in the order. The court has also ordered the installation of bird-diverters on the power lines till they are made underground so that the birds can see the cables from a distance and avoid colliding with them. For power lines that cannot be laid underground due to technical reasons, installation of bird diverters have been made mandatory.a 3-member committee has been formed to monitor and instruct on how and where to underground the high-voltage lines (130 kV and above, as per the affidavit filed by Power Ministry), till then the bird-diverters should be installed on such lines with immediate effect. Dr. Rahul Rawat, Scientist at Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Dr. Sutirtha Dutta, Scientist at Wildlife Institute of India, and Mr. Devesh Gadhavi, Scientist and Deputy Director of The Corbett Foundation, have been appointed as the Members of this Committee.
