‘Raj to set up two captive breeding centres for Great Indian Bustards’

Jodhpur: The Rajasathan High Court has been told by the state government that it has decided to set up two captive breeding centres for conservation of the Great Indian Bustard.

The two places identified for setting up the breeding centres for the Rajasthan’s state bird are Sursan in Kota and Ramdeora in Jaisalmer, Additional Advocate General Sandeep Shah informed a bench of justices Sangeet Lodha and Dinesh Mehta in an affidavit to the court.

The court earlier had taken suo motu cognisance of the dwindling numbers of the bird in the state and had issued notice to the government seeking to know what it was doing to conserve the state birds, declared an endangered species under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.

“Land parcels of 700 hectares and 193 hectares have been identified in Sursan in Kota and Ramdeora in Jaisalmer respectively for setting up these breeding centres,” said Shah.

He added the relevant gram panchayats have given in-principle consent for transfer of the land for the purpose and it would soon be transferred to set up the breeding centres.

“These centers will be developed on the line of those in Abudhabi and the experts’ assistance would be sought from there to set up the breeding centres,” he said.

“A tripartite agreement has been signed among Wild Life Institute of India, State Forest Department and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change,” the law officer told the court.

According to wildlife experts, the Great Indian Bustard are found in Rajasthan, Gujrat, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh but their number has declined to just four to five in other state, except Rajasthan.