Why in news?

Recently, the Supreme Court said it will review its April 2021 order to bury underground all power lines in the habitat of the Great Indian Bustard (GIB). This was after the Centre found the order practically impossible to implement over long distances.

What’s in today’s article?

• Great Indian Bustard (GIB) – About, habitat and status, threats, conservation measures, SC’s intervention

What is Great Indian Bustard (GIB)?

• About
  • GIBs are the largest among the four-bustard species found in India.
    • The other three being MacQueen’s bustard, lesser florican and the Bengal florican.
  • Being terrestrial birds, they spend most of their time on the ground with occasional flights to go from one part of their habitat to the other.
  • They feed on insects, lizards, grass seeds etc. GIBs are considered the flagship bird species of grassland and hence barometers of the health of grassland ecosystems.
• Habitat and Status of GIB
  • This bird, found mainly in Rajasthan and Gujarat, has been categorized as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
    • As per the 2021 report of the IUCN, they are on the verge of extinction with hardly 50 to 249 of them alive.
    • According to a report by The Corbett Foundation (TCF), less than 150 GIB are left in the wild.
  • GIBs’ historic range included much of the Indian sub-continent but it has now shrunken to just 10 per cent of it.
  • Among the heaviest birds with flight, GIBs prefer grasslands as their habitats.
• Threats faced by GIB
  • Scientists of Wildlife Institute of India (WII) have been pointing out overhead power transmission lines as the biggest threat to the GIBs.
    • WII research has concluded that in Rajasthan, 18 GIBs die every year after colliding with overhead powerlines.
  • These birds, due to their poor frontal vision, cannot detect powerlines in time and their weight make in-flight quick manoeuvres difficult.
    • Unlike some birds that have a panoramic vision around the head, species like raptors and bustards have extensive blind areas above their heads.
    • When they stretch their head forward to scan the ground below, they fly blind in the direction of travel.
  • Kutch and Thar desert are the places which have witnessed creation of huge renewable energy infrastructure over the past two decades.
    • This led to installation of windmills and construction of power lines even in core GIB areas.
  • Other threats include:
    • Free-ranging dogs
    • Widespread use of pesticides in farmlands
    • Loss of grassland, particularly nesting sites, and
    • An erosion of support from local communities
• Conservation measures initiated for the protection of GIB
  • In 2015, the Central government launched the GIB species recovery programme.
  • Under the programme, the WII and Rajasthan Forest department have jointly set up conservation breeding centres where GIB eggs harvested from the wild are incubated artificially and hatchlings raised in controlled environment.
  • The plan is to create a population which can act as insurance against the threat of extinction and release the third generation of these captive-bred birds into the wild.
  • Bird diverters have also been installed on power lines to protect the Great Indian Bustard (GIB) from collisions.
    • The diverters act as reflectors that birds can see from about 50 meters away.
    • When birds spot the diverters, they change their flight path to avoid colliding with the power lines.

Supreme Court’s intervention

• 2021 order of SC
  • The SC in April 2021 ordered that all overhead power transmission lines in core and potential GIB habitats in Rajasthan and Gujarat be made underground.
  • The SC also formed a three-member committee, including Devesh Gadhvi, the member of the bustard specialist group of IUCN, to help power companies comply with the order.
• Review in 2022
  • Again, in November 2022, the court sought reports from chief secretaries of the two states in six weeks on installation of bird diverters in priority areas.
  • It also asked them to assess the length of transmission lines need to go underground.
• March 2024 order of SC
  • In March 2024, the Supreme Court said it will review its April 2021 order.
  • It also created a seven-member committee that will suggest steps to protect and conserve the GIB, identifying critical areas where power lines may have to go underground.

Arguments of the Centre on the issue of undergrounding all power lines

• The Centre said taking lines of 66 KV and higher voltage underground was not feasible for the evacuation of bulk power.
• This is due to constraints such as transmission losses, maintenance challenges, multiple cable joints, increased time requirements, and concerns of safety.