"Captive-bred Great Indian Bustard chicks enter rewilding tunnel in Jaisalmer"
Rewilding
process of conditioning captive-bred animals to survive independently in their natural habitat before release.
Critically Endangered (IUCN)
highest threat category before Extinct in the Wild; applied to GIB (Ardeotis nigriceps).
The Great Indian Bustard (Ardeotis nigriceps), locally called Godawan, is one of the heaviest flying birds in the world and holds the distinction of being the State Bird of Rajasthan. Once distributed across the arid and semi-arid grasslands stretching from Punjab to Tamil Nadu, the species has suffered a catastrophic population collapse over the past century. Today, the last viable wild population is almost entirely confined to Rajasthan's Thar desert, with only a remnant of females surviving in Gujarat. The Wildlife Institute of India (WII) estimates the current wild population at approximately 110–150 individuals, occupying a mere 16% of ecologically potential habitat in the Thar region.
The species receives the highest tier of domestic legal protection under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, which prohibits hunting and mandates the most stringent penalties for violations. Internationally, it is listed under CITES Appendix I, prohibiting commercial trade across borders. Despite these protections, population decline continued, driven by grassland conversion to agriculture, egg predation, and — increasingly — collision with overhead power transmission lines, a threat amplified by the species' poor frontal vision. This biological vulnerability has made the expansion of solar and wind energy infrastructure in the Thar region a particularly acute conservation challenge.
In response, the Central Government and Rajasthan jointly launched Project GIB, a multi-pronged recovery programme with the WII as the nodal scientific institution under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC). The programme operates across four pillars: habitat improvement, predator management, wild egg and chick protection, and captive breeding. Captive breeding centres were established at Sam and Ramdevra in Jaisalmer district, with technical support from international partners, to build an insurance population while wild habitat quality is simultaneously improved.
Captive breeding for conservation is a last-resort intervention used when a species' wild population falls below a threshold at which natural recovery is unlikely without human assistance. The core logic is to breed individuals in controlled conditions, build a genetically diverse insurance population, and eventually reintroduce captive-bred animals into restored wild habitat — a process called rewilding. However, captive-bred animals often lack the survival instincts — foraging behaviour, predator avoidance, habitat navigation — that wild-born individuals acquire through lived experience. This is the central challenge that rewilding infrastructure is designed to address.
A rewilding tunnel is a semi-natural enclosure that bridges the gap between full captivity and the open wild. By minimising direct human contact, replicating natural habitat conditions (terrain, vegetation, food sources), and allowing birds to develop instinctive behaviours over an extended period, the facility conditions animals for independent survival before release. …
In which of the following regions of India are you most likely to come across the 'Great Indian Hornbill' in its natural habitat?
Consider the following statements about the Great Indian Bustard (GIB):
1.It is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List.
2.It is protected under Schedule II of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
3.Its current wild population is almost entirely confined to Rajasthan's Thar desert.
4.It is listed under CITES Appendix I.
Which of the statements given above are correct?
The 'rewilding tunnel' recently in news is associated with which of the following?
With reference to Project GIB, consider the following statements:
1.The Wildlife Institute of India (WII) is the nodal scientific institution for the programme.
2.Captive breeding centres have been established at Sam and Ramdevra in Jaisalmer district.
3.The programme is implemented solely by the Rajasthan state government without Central Government involvement.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
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