Overview
- - Gujarat recorded a Great Indian Bustard chick in Kutch for the first time in about a decade, with roughly 50 wildlife staff guarding the mother and chick around the clock.
- - Officials used a “jumpstart” method to solve the lack of males in Kutch by swapping a wild nest’s infertile egg with a fertilised one carried from Rajasthan in a handheld incubator after a 19‑hour road trip.
- - In Rajasthan, two new chicks hatched at the Sam breeding centre, including one through artificial insemination, bringing the captive population to 70 under Project Great Indian Bustard.
- - Scientists plan gradual soft releases for selected captive-bred chicks after conditioning and radio-tagging, though field vets expect only about 20–30% to survive early hazards such as predation and finding food.
- - The species still faces feral dogs, shrinking grasslands, and deadly power-line strikes in solar zones, and a past court order to bury lines in key breeding areas was later overturned, even as Jaisalmer surveys count roughly 130 wild birds.