It is not just middle class Indians who are having problems finding a mate. The great Indian bustard is also having a problem. So much so that it is now a critically endangered species. However, good old Indian jugaad has now been deployed to shore up the bustards numbers. Cherylann Mollan writes: “Wildlife officials in the western state of Rajasthan have performed the first successful hatching of a chick through artificial insemination.
A lone adult male in one of two breeding centres in Jaisalmer city was trained to produce sperm without mating, which was then used to impregnate an adult female at the second centre some 200km (124 miles) away.
Officials said the development was important as it has opened up the possibility of creating a sperm bank.
Over the years, habitat loss, poaching and collisions with overhead power lines have effected great Indian bustards. Their numbers have fallen from more than 1,000 in the 1960s to around 150 at present.
Most of them are found in Jaisalmer and hence, conservation activists say that the bird’s habitat in the city should be protected. But this land is also prime real estate for renewable energy firms, presenting authorities with a unique conservation challenge….
The massive bird, which weighs between 15kg and 18kg, is one of the biggest flying birds in India.
It once had a prolific presence in the country and was found in at least 11 states, but today, its population is confined to Rajasthan, while a handful might be spotted in the southern state of Karnataka and the western state of Gujarat.
The shy bird plays an important role in the food chain by preying on rodents, snakes and other pests and is also the state bird of Rajasthan, where it is called ‘Godawan’ by locals.
But some of the bird’s unique evolutionary traits are clashing with human interventions, making it vulnerable to extinction.
For one, the great Indian bustard has good peripheral vision but poor frontal vision, making it difficult for them to spot power lines until they fly too close to them. Their large size makes it difficult for them to quickly change their flight path and they end up colliding with the cables and dying.”
Whilst artificial insemination if scaled up successfully can boost the bustard’s numbers, there is one problem with the artificially bred birds: “As a first step, researchers collected eggs found in the wild and hatched them in incubation centres. “Currently, there are 45 birds in both the centres,14 of which are captive-bred chicks (including the one born through artificial insemination),” he adds.
The plan is to further boost the bird’s population and then eventually release them into the wild. But conservationists say that this is easier said than done.
This is because the birds born in these breeding centres have imprinted on human researchers (in other words, they have formed close bonds with their human caretakers) and have lost about 60-70% of their ability to survive in the wild, says Mr Dookia.
“Human imprinting is necessary for feeding and handling the birds but it also makes them lose their natural instincts. It will be extremely challenging to re-wild them, especially if there’s no habitat left for the birds to be released into,” he adds.”
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