The Great Indian Bustard is not a charismatic animal in the way a tiger is. It is a heavy, long-legged, ground-dwelling bird of dry open country, and its natural habitat — grassland and scrub — is the habitat Indian land policy has historically classified as wasteland. That single administrative word explains a great deal about how a bird that once ranged across much of the subcontinent came to number fewer than 150.
On 14 September 2026 the Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bhupender Yadav, visited the bustard habitat at Naliya in Kachchh district, Gujarat, and inaugurated a Soft Release Centre for the species. He was accompanied by Gujarat's Forest and Environment Minister Arjun Modhwadia, with officials of the MoEFCC, the Gujarat Forest Department, the Wildlife Institute of India and the Border Security Force.
The centre is a small building. What it represents is the last stage of a conservation technique that India has been assembling, with real difficulty, for about a decade.
Why "soft" release
Releasing a captive-bred animal straight into the wild usually fails. A bird raised in an enclosure has never chosen its own food, never encountered a predator, never dealt with weather or distance. Dropped into open country it tends to die quickly, and the breeding effort behind it is wasted.
Soft release is the alternative. The animal is moved to a facility inside or adjacent to its natural habitat and held in a large enclosure that is progressively opened. It experiences local climate, local vegetation, local sounds and local predators while still receiving supplementary food and protection. Only when it is feeding and behaving appropriately is it fully released — and it is usually monitored afterwards, often by radio or satellite tag.
The Soft Release Centre at Naliya is exactly this: infrastructure to support, in the ministry's own description, the conservation, monitoring and gradual adaptation of bustards to the natural environment. It is the bridge between a conservation breeding programme and a wild population. Without it, captive breeding produces birds that cannot be used.
The bird, and the arithmetic of its decline
Ardeotis nigriceps is one of the heaviest flying birds in the world, standing about a metre tall. It is the State Bird of Rajasthan, is listed in Schedule I of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, and is classified Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List — the last category before Extinct in the Wild.
The global population is now estimated at fewer than 150 birds, effectively all in India, with a few possibly surviving in Pakistan. The overwhelming majority are in Rajasthan, centred on the Desert National Park near Jaisalmer in the Thar. Gujarat's Kachchh population is tiny — a handful of birds — which is precisely why the work at Naliya matters out of proportion to its numbers. A population that small is one bad season from local extinction.
The species has lost roughly 90 per cent of its range and abundance within the last fifty years. Four pressures account for most of it:
- Habitat conversion. Grassland classified as wasteland was ploughed, irrigated, planted or industrialised. The bustard needs open ground with clear sightlines; it will not use a landscape it cannot see across.
- Power-line collision. This is now considered the gravest single threat to adults. The bustard's eyes are set on the sides of its head, giving it poor frontal vision; it is heavy, and it cannot change direction quickly. A transmission line across its flight path is close to invisible to it until too late. The irony is sharp — much of that infrastructure carries renewable power from the same arid landscapes the bird depends on.
- Invasive vegetation, principally Prosopis juliflora, the thorny mesquite planted widely across dry India, which converts open grassland into impenetrable scrub.
- A very slow life history. A female typically lays one egg in a season and nests on the ground. Ground nests are lost to feral dogs, foxes and pigs, and to trampling by livestock. A species that replaces itself this slowly cannot absorb adult mortality.
What was actually achieved on the ground
The minister was briefed on four specific interventions in the Kachchh landscape, and the numbers are worth carrying because they are the kind an examiner can lift directly.
- Around 11 sq km of grassland restored by clearing invasive Prosopis juliflora.
- 30 km of predator-proof fencing raised, covering 15 sq km — aimed squarely at the ground-nest predation problem.
- 33 new patrolling and rescue vehicles flagged off for divisions under the Kachchh Forest Circle.
- The 'jump-start' intervention, which is the genuinely novel item.
The jump-start technique deserves explanation, because it is a clever answer to a specific biological problem. Wild bustard females sometimes lay infertile eggs — and having laid, they sit on them for the full incubation period, losing an entire breeding season to an egg that will never hatch. Under the jump-start intervention, those infertile eggs are replaced with viable eggs from the conservation breeding programme. The wild female incubates and rears a chick that is genetically from the breeding centre but raised entirely in the wild by a wild parent — which sidesteps the whole problem of teaching captive-raised birds how to be bustards.
The minister was informed that the chick from the second such attempt has survived beyond the critical first three months in the wild. For a species with this population size, a single surviving wild-reared chick is a reportable national result.
Alongside the technical work ran a 'Khatala Sabha' with representatives of the Jat, Sumra and Darbar communities — the pastoralist and agricultural groups whose land use determines whether the grassland survives. This is not decoration. Bustard habitat is largely outside protected areas, on common and revenue land grazed by livestock. Conservation that the local pastoralists oppose does not happen; moderate grazing, in fact, helps keep grassland open. The link between community consent and species survival is tighter here than in most wildlife conservation work.
The legal thread: M.K. Ranjitsinh
No account of the bustard is complete without the litigation, which has become an important constitutional case in its own right.
In M.K. Ranjitsinh v. Union of India, the Supreme Court in 2021 ordered that power lines across a very large area of bustard habitat in Rajasthan and Gujarat — of the order of 99,000 sq km — be laid underground where feasible, and fitted with bird diverters in the meantime.
The order collided with reality. Undergrounding high-voltage transmission at that scale is extraordinarily expensive and technically limited, and the same districts host much of India's solar and wind capacity. In March 2024 a three-judge bench headed by then Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud modified the blanket direction, substituting an expert-committee mechanism to decide feasibility case by case — and, in the course of doing so, recognised freedom from the adverse effects of climate change as a right traceable to Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution. The Court also invoked Article 48A, the Directive Principle on protecting the environment and safeguarding forests and wildlife, and Article 51A(g), the fundamental duty to protect the natural environment and have compassion for living creatures.
That judgment is the reason this case now appears in polity questions as often as environment ones: it is India's clearest judicial statement of a climate right, and it arrived inside a dispute about a bird. The litigation has continued past 2024, so treat the case as live rather than closed.
The rest of the day: Van Kavach and mangroves
The visit covered two other programmes that will travel separately into question papers.
At Sayara, the minister inaugurated the Sayara Van Kavach, a dense plantation developed over a 9.46 sq km site on the Miyawaki method — close, multi-layered planting of native species designed to produce fast-growing dense forest in limited space. It comprises over 10,000 saplings across 47 native species chosen for saline, low-water Kachchh conditions, and is expected to lower local temperatures by 1.5–2°C, aid groundwater recharge and check soil erosion. A memorandum of understanding was exchanged with the Deendayal Port Authority for plantation work.
At Jakhau, he visited the mangrove nursery and planted Avicennia marina — the dominant, highly salt-tolerant mangrove of the Gujarat coast — alongside BSF personnel and local residents, and met beneficiaries of MISHTI.
MISHTI — Mangrove Initiative for Shoreline Habitats & Tangible Incomes — was announced in the 2023-24 Union Budget and is the national mangrove restoration programme, run in convergence with MGNREGA and CAMPA funds. The Kachchh numbers reported on the day:
- Against a cumulative plantation target of 29,250 hectares for 2023-24 to 2026-27, mangrove plantation has been completed over 27,652 hectares.
- Of that, 12,450 hectares are in the Kori Creek area.
- About 3.49 lakh mangrove seedlings have been raised at the Jakhau nursery.
Gujarat matters disproportionately here: it holds the second-largest mangrove cover of any Indian state after West Bengal, and the Kori Creek and Sir Creek areas sit on a sensitive stretch of the international boundary — which is why the BSF appears in a plantation story at all. Mangroves buffer cyclones and storm surge, trap sediment, and serve as nursery habitat for fish, so restoring them is simultaneously coastal defence, conservation and livelihood policy.
🔑 Revision block
The event. On 14 September 2026 the Union Environment Minister inaugurated a Great Indian Bustard Soft Release Centre at Naliya, Kachchh, Gujarat, flagged off 33 patrolling vehicles, inaugurated the Sayara Van Kavach, and planted mangroves at Jakhau.
The species. Ardeotis nigriceps. Critically Endangered (IUCN). Schedule I, Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972. State Bird of Rajasthan. Fewer than 150 left; the stronghold is the Desert National Park, Jaisalmer. Range and abundance down about 90% in 50 years.
Threats. Habitat conversion of grassland; power-line collision (poor frontal vision, heavy body); invasive Prosopis juliflora; one egg per season, laid on the ground.
Figures from the visit. 11 sq km grassland restored from Prosopis; 30 km predator-proof fencing over 15 sq km; 33 vehicles.
The jump-start intervention. Infertile eggs of wild females replaced with viable eggs from the conservation breeding programme; the chick from the second attempt has survived beyond three months in the wild.
The case. M.K. Ranjitsinh v. Union of India — 2021 order on undergrounding power lines across about 99,000 sq km; March 2024 bench modified it and recognised freedom from adverse effects of climate change under Articles 14 and 21, invoking Article 48A and Article 51A(g).
Van Kavach. Sayara, 9.46 sq km, Miyawaki method, 10,000+ saplings, 47 native species, expected cooling 1.5–2°C.
MISHTI. Mangrove Initiative for Shoreline Habitats & Tangible Incomes. Target 29,250 ha (2023-24 to 2026-27); 27,652 ha done; 12,450 ha in Kori Creek; 3.49 lakh seedlings at Jakhau. Species planted: Avicennia marina.
🎯 Practice MCQs
Q1. The Great Indian Bustard is the State Bird of: (a) Gujarat (b) Rajasthan (c) Madhya Pradesh (d) Maharashtra → (b) — though Kachchh in Gujarat holds a small and strategically important population.
Q2. Under the IUCN Red List, the Great Indian Bustard is classified as: (a) Vulnerable (b) Endangered (c) Critically Endangered (d) Extinct in the Wild → (c) — the highest risk category for a species still found in the wild.
Q3. The 'jump-start' intervention in GIB conservation refers to: (a) Artificial incubation of all wild eggs (b) Replacing infertile eggs of wild females with viable eggs from the breeding programme (c) Releasing adult birds after captive breeding (d) Relocating birds between Rajasthan and Gujarat → (b) — it uses a wild female to rear a genetically captive-origin chick in the wild.
Q4. The invasive species cleared to restore bustard grassland in Kachchh is: (a) Lantana camara (b) Parthenium hysterophorus (c) Prosopis juliflora (d) Eichhornia crassipes → (c) — thorny mesquite, which converts open grassland into dense scrub.
Q5. In M.K. Ranjitsinh v. Union of India (2024), the Supreme Court recognised freedom from the adverse effects of climate change as a right flowing from: (a) Articles 19 and 25 (b) Articles 14 and 21 (c) Articles 21 and 32 (d) Article 48A alone → (b) — Article 48A is a Directive Principle and Article 51A(g) a fundamental duty; neither is itself enforceable as a right.
Q6. The Miyawaki method is best described as: (a) Contour trenching for water harvesting (b) Dense, multi-layered plantation of native species in a small area (c) Assisted natural regeneration of degraded forest (d) Agroforestry on farm bunds → (b) — the technique used for the Sayara Van Kavach.
Q7. MISHTI, launched in the 2023-24 Budget, relates to: (a) Millet promotion (b) Mangrove restoration and coastal livelihoods (c) Inland fisheries (d) Sweet-water aquaculture → (b) — Mangrove Initiative for Shoreline Habitats & Tangible Incomes.
Q8. Avicennia marina, planted at the Jakhau nursery, is a: (a) Seagrass (b) Mangrove species (c) Halophytic grass (d) Salt-tolerant shrub of the Thar → (b) — a highly salt-tolerant mangrove, dominant on the Gujarat coast.
Q9. Consider the following statements: 1. The Great Indian Bustard normally lays a single egg in a breeding season. 2. It nests in trees, which protects the egg from ground predators. (a) 1 only (b) 2 only (c) Both (d) Neither → (a) — it is a ground-nesting bird, which is exactly why predation is such a problem.
Q10. Kori Creek, where a large share of MISHTI plantation has been completed, lies in: (a) Odisha (b) West Bengal (c) Gujarat (d) Maharashtra → (c) — in Kachchh, near the international boundary, which is why the BSF participates in plantation work there.
📋 How this gets asked (PYQ pattern)
Species-conservation items in CDS and OTA papers take four recognisable shapes. The status item gives a species and asks its IUCN category or its Schedule under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 — the trap is offering Endangered when the answer is Critically Endangered. The habitat item pairs a species with a protected area or a state, and Desert National Park, Kachchh and the GIB form a natural triangle for that. The state-symbol item asks which state claims the bird, where Rajasthan is the answer and Gujarat the plausible distractor precisely because the news comes from Kachchh. The programme item asks what an acronym stands for or which ministry runs it — MISHTI against MISHTI-sounding neighbours, or Project GIB against Project Tiger and Project Dolphin.
Two newer grooves are worth preparing. First, judgments are now examinable as polity: M.K. Ranjitsinh is likely to appear as an Articles question (14 and 21, with 48A and 51A(g) as distractors) rather than as a wildlife question. Second, technique questions — soft release, the jump-start egg swap, the Miyawaki method — let an examiner test understanding instead of recall, and all three are fresh enough this cycle to be attractive.
The fresh 2026 hooks are the Naliya Soft Release Centre, the 11 sq km / 30 km / 15 sq km restoration figures, the 9.46 sq km Sayara Van Kavach with 47 native species, and the 27,652 of 29,250 hectares MISHTI progress figure. We describe the recurring pattern here, not any exact past question.
Preparing for CDS or OTA? Environment questions reward students who learn one landscape properly rather than twenty facts loosely — Kachchh alone carries a bird, a mangrove programme, a plantation model and a constitutional case. Build the base with our CDS/OTA geography hub, follow the daily CDS/OTA current affairs, and prepare with our faculty in the upcoming Cavalier courses in Delhi.
✍️ Written by Hitendra Deswal — Environment & current affairs faculty at The Cavalier. Reviewed by the Cavalier Faculty Desk. The Cavalier, founded by ex-Army officers, has trained NDA/CDS/SSB aspirants since 2001 (Facebook · YouTube).
Source: PIB / Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, 14 September 2026 (Release ID 2310053). GIB population estimates, IUCN status, threat profile and the M.K. Ranjitsinh litigation history cross-verified with IUCN/BirdLife material and independent reporting on the Supreme Court proceedings.