Animal News (Except Bigcats)

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Only three Great Indian Bustards sighted during census


It's wakeup call for all concerned as only three of the critically endangered Great Indian Bustards (GIBs) were sighted in the three-day annual estimation exercise in Warora, Chandrapur from July 15-17.

Around 14 teams of forest staff scanned GIB habitat in Bhadravati and Warora tehsils. "Our teams sighted one female on July 15 and two female birds on July 17 in Wanoja-Marda area. Last year, presence of seven GIBs was recorded. Low sightings do not mean their number has gone down," said RM Talande, RFO of Warora.

Talande said due to low rains, the census time was not opportune. "This might be one of the reasons for poor sightings," he added.

In Nagpur division, the exercise was not carried out seriously during July 10-12 and hence not a single bird was sighted.

At a time when GIBs are getting rarer, the wildlife wing has launched a recovery project for the bird under which ministry of environment & forests (MoEF) has granted permission to fit platform terminal transmitters (PTTs) to these birds to know about their habitat.

Talking to TOI, senior scientist of Wildlife Institute of India (WII) Bilal Habib said he had placed orders for five more PTTs, which were expected from the US next month.

"We fitted one male GIB with a solar-powered PTT. Its life was for six months. In September, we will fit one PPT to a female," said Habib. Two PTTs will be fitted to two birds in Nannaj bustard sanctuary. Remaining two transmitters will be fixed to two lesser floricons.

Each PTT costs around Rs4 lakh. Of the Rs37 lakh project, Rs27 lakh has been paid to WII by the state government under Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA).


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