The Four Bustards Of India On The Brink

A Great Indian Bustard. Image credit: Kesavamurthy via Wikimedia Commons

Bustards are among India's most threatened groups of birds, suffering the ill fate primarily for their preference for grassland habitats that are highly degraded and fragmented across the country. While forests with tigers grab the majority of attention from conservation stakeholders, grasslands remain largely ignored, pushing the grassland species to the brink. These birds are omnivorous and opportunistic in nature and nest on the ground, making their nests highly vulnerable to predation and trampling. They exhibit a high degree of sexual dimorphism. 

India is home to four species of bustards, with two being endemic to the Indian subcontinent. Read on below to learn about these rare and highly threatened birds of India and what is leading to their rapid demise.

MacQueen's Bustard

A male MacQueen's bustard wintering at Kutch, Gujarat, India. Image credit: Harsha Jayaramaiah via Wikimedia Commons.

Little talked about in India, MacQueen's bustard, formerly known to be a subspecies of the houbara bustard, is still referred to as the Asian houbara. Its scientific name is Chlamydotis macqueenii. The bird's range stretches from the Sinai Peninsula to Kazakhstan and onto Mongolia, with around 50% of the population occurring in Kazakhstan. In India, the bird's non-breeding population is found in the western parts of the country, especially in the Little Rann of Kutch. These birds prefer open, arid areas with sparse vegetation. Short grasslands make for an ideal habitat for these birds. The species is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, with around 33,000-67,000 mature individuals globally. Hunting is a major threat to these bustards, especially in West and Central Asia. In addition, the loss of grassland habitats due to human activities and pollution also triggers population declines of the species.

Great Indian Bustard (GIB)

Great Indian Bustards. Image credit: Inside Indian Jungles via Flickr.com,

There is much talk about this bustard species (Ardeotis nigriceps) in India, which is on the brink of extinction. This bird is endemic to the Indian subcontinent, with only around 50 to 250 surviving individuals, as per IUCN, making it a critically endangered species. If India loses this bird, it will be a sad story for the country. Historically, the Thar Desert in Rajasthan and the Deccan tableland used to be the strongholds of this ground-dwelling bird. Today, the Desert National Park and Pokhran Field Firing Range in Rajasthan are the only locations with small viable populations of this bird. The rest of the range states have only around 1 to 6 individuals or none at all. Arid and semi-arid grasslands with scattered bushes and shrubs make ideal habitats for these ground-nesting birds. Only around one egg is laid a year, making population generation times very slow. Different activities of the bird demand different microhabitats, like tall grass cover for nesting, sparse vegetation for roosting, and moderate vegetation for display during the breeding season. While previously hunting was a major threat, the bird is now well protected by law as a Schedule 1 species. However, its habitat is not spared from human activities, with the loss, degradation, and fragmentation of grasslands being a major threat to the GIB. Also, high-voltage power lines in its habitat cause many GIBs to die due to collision and electrocution.

Lesser Florican

A lesser florican in a grassland in Rajasthan, India. Image credit: Angad Achappa via Wikimedia Commons.

Another bustard species endemic to the Indian subcontinent, the lesser florican (Sypheotides indicus), is also rushing towards extinction. Only around 356 to 1,228 members of this species remain, giving it the critically endangered label on the IUCN Red List. Once again, the destruction of India's grassland habitats serves as the primary cause of the species' decline. Today, the only strongholds of the lesser florican are in Velavadar, Gujarat and in Rajasthan's Shokalyia-Bhinai landscape. They are on the verge of local extinction in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, where the species once occurred in large numbers. The lesser florican is famous for the spectacular dancing displays of the male during the breeding season when it springs up high in the grassland to attract the female. Rainfall patterns determine the bird's choice of grassland habitat and hence, climate change is also a major threat to the species.

Bengal Florican

Bengal Florican  photographed at Orang Tiger Reserve (Orang National Park), Darrang, Assam, IndiaImage credit: Nejib Ahmed via Wikimedia Commons

Another beautiful bustard, the Bengal florican (Houbaropsis bengalensis), also faces the same grievous circumstances as the GIB and lesser florican. It is critically endangered, with only around 250 to 999 surviving mature individuals, as per IUCN. Historically, it has been found across South and Southeast Asia, but today, its population is restricted to only India, Nepal, and Cambodia. In India, only less than 100 males are known to survive, although no recent countrywide population estimates have been made. Northeast India, especially the D'Ering Wildlife Sanctuary in Arunachal Pradesh, hosts the majority of the species' population in the country. It is also a grassland species, preferring dry or seasonally inundated grasslands where it is mostly a resident bird. Loss of grasslands due to anthropogenic interventions and hunting remain the biggest threats to the species.