Overview
- A chick born on May 21 in Naliya, Kutch, under Gujarat's 'Jump Start' programme has passed the roughly 40-day vulnerability window and is under continuous scientific monitoring.
- The jumpstart method places a captive-bred fertile egg in a wild female's nest so the wild bird incubates, hatches and raises the chick in natural habitat to improve adaptation.
- Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav and Gujarat officials hailed the milestone after reviewing Project Great Indian Bustard during a national standing committee meeting.
- The success follows an earlier jumpstart chick that hatched on March 26 and went missing in April, a loss officials attribute to field risks such as predation and the technical challenges of the method.
- Captive-breeding centres in Rajasthan have produced 98 chicks and teams from the Wildlife Institute of India and state forest departments are preparing for a controlled rewilding phase informed by this field trial.