Poaching of Great Indian Bustard
Recently, in Pakistan, two Great Indian Bustards were shot dead by poachers in a protected area in Cholistan desert.
Key Points:
- It is to be noted that the Great Indian Bustard is critically endangered bird of India, which has been declared as the state bird of Rajasthan.
- It has the largest population in Rajasthan and Gujarat, and a few are also found in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
- The Great Indian Bustard has been declared a critically endangered species in the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
- It is included under Appendix-1 in The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), and placed in Schedule-1 of the Wildlife Conservation Act, 1972.
Important Programs
- India’s Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change is running a program called ‘Habitat improvement and conservation breeding of great Indian bustard: an integrated approach’ to protect them, which aims to increase the number of Great Indian Bustards.
- The Government of Rajasthan has launched the ‘Project Great Indian Bustard’ program to build safe habitats for breeding this species.
Source – The Hindu
