plight to ponder

PLIGHT TO PONDER Status of Great Indian Bustard in Western part of Thar Desert of Rajasthan, India Project Technical Report

Project Investigator Dr. Sumit Dookia

ERDS, Rajasthan & Oriental Bird Club, UK

2010

Oriental Bird Club Conservation Grant

Ecology and Rural Development Society Copyright © Ecology and Rural Development Society and Sumit Dookia This report may be quoted freely but the source must be acknowledged and to be cited as: Dookia, S. (2010). Present status of Great Indian Bustard in Western part of Thar Desert of Rajasthan, India. Copy can be obtained from: Dr. Sumit Dookia “Bhagirath” 1-A-43, Kudi Housing Board, Jodhpur-342005, Rajasthan, INDIA Email: [email protected]

Oriental Bird Club, P.O.Box 324, Bedford, MK42 0WG, United Kingdom Email: [email protected].

Photo credits: Amit Kotia, Ashok Choudhary, Devendra Bhardwaj, Gajendra Singh, K. R. Senacha, Nirav Bhat, Ramki Srinivasan, Sumit Dookia, Veer Vaibhav Mishra, Vigil Wilson

Contents Acknowledgements Page No. Introduction

1

About the Project

2

Brief history and historical records of GIB

2

Conservation journey of GIB

5

Conservation awareness project

6

Project Objectives

6

Methodology

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Approach to achieve the project goals

7

Project Implementation

7

Record of GIB sightings and localities

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Prospective habitats and GIB sightings

9

Current problems for Bustards

11

List of Govt. offices visited

13

Project team

13

References

14

Annexure Map of GIB Sighting

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Map of windmill area in GIB landscape with GIB sighting

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Photo Documentation of project activities

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Acknowledgements I have seen my first Great Indian Bustard when in year 2000, I was volunteering with Dr. A. R. Rahmani, during his Godawan Yatra from Bikaner to Jaisalmer. This sighting was at open vast grasslands of Diyatra, Bikaner. This Godawan campaign changed my entire prospective of think about the wild animals and knowledge of local communities. Later in 2006, I did my first conservation campaign support by Oriental Bird Club under its Conservation Grants and I did a 15 days long survey in the entire Indira Gandhi Canal Area and assessed the avian diversity of this changing landscape. During this project, I also collected information on GIB and its status through interaction with locals. Later in 2008, I personally visited Desert National Park and spent 10 days in June, as these days are of breeding activities of GIB. The present project was conceived during this trip. Execution of this project was only possible due to the financial support by “Oriental Bird Club (OBC), UK”. I therefore express sincere gratitude on the behalf of my whole team to OBC especially to Dr. David Buckingham, Dr. Phil Benstead, Dr Francis Buner , Mr. Graeme Spinks, and Dr. Geoff M. Hilton (Senior Research Biologist, RSPB, UK), for extending help and support throughout the duration of this project. I also want to express my sincere thanks to Dr. Asad R. Rahmani, (Director, BNHS, India) for his continues support in the field of conservation. Sincere regards to Prof. G. R. Jakher (President, ERDS) for constant support and able guidance during the planning of survey to visit the GIB Landscape. I am extremely thankful to photographers, namely, Ms. Joanna Van Gruisen, Mr. Raja Purohit, Mr. Otto Pfister, Mr. Gaurav Bhatanagar, Mr. Henrik Carlsen, Mr. Nirav Bhat, Mr. Ramki Srinivasan, Dr. K. R. Senacha, Mr. Vigil Wilson, Mr. Gajendra Singh, Dr. Amit Kotiaand Mr. Paul Blamford for providing quality photographs, to publish Informative brochure, posters and banners for campaign. This survey cum conservation campaign was impossible without the overwhelming interest and support from my co-campaigners, who bear with me during all the hectic, hot and as well as cold days in the desert, with very limited facilities. I am also thankful to Dr. K. R. Senacha, Dr. Amit Kotia, Mr. Vigil Wilson, Mr. Gajendra Singh, Mr. Chandan Singh Rathore, Mr. Tarun Singh and Mr. Mahendra Singh (our driver of vehicle) for their help during the entire field work and helping in local campaigns. The survey team received warm hospitality from various families and forest chauki in-charges for this my sincere thanks from the all team members. Thanks are also due to Dr. Mamta Rawat, Scientist, ERDS through brain storming discussions with her give me a lot new ideas to plan a wider community outreach. Her great support from publicity material to discussion on various other ideas for the conservation of birds of this region was overwhelming. Last but not least, I would like to thank all the participants, especially the local villagers for their involvement and understanding in making this conservation program a success with meaningful out comes. I wish them luck with their future endeavors. With a great hope for the future of really majestic bird for being a keystone of desert grassland ecosystem. ************

Status of Great Indian Bustard in Western part of Thar Desert of Rajasthan, India.

Introduction

T

he Thar or Indian Desert is one of the smallest deserts in the world, but most thickly populated. It is the eastern extension of the vast Persio-Arabian desert, which joins the great Sahara Desert, and located at the crossing of Palaearctic, Oriental and Saharan elements of biodiversity are found (Baqri and Kankane, 2002) and also known for its great civilization in Ghaggar and Indus river basin. It occupies about 10% of India’s geographical area and covers 2,08,751 sq. km. in 12 districts of Rajasthan alone (Rahmani 1997). The desert also spreads to Punjab in Firozpur, Sangrur and Bhatinda districts in the north and Mahandergarh and Hissar districts of Haryana in the northeast. Whereas Aravali hills range (one of the oldest mountain range) making its southeastern boundary in Rajasthan and Surendernagar district in Gujarat is the southern limit. It is about 640 km long and 160 km wide and covered by a depth of several meters of sands which are constantly being shifted by winds blowing from south-west (Krishnan 1982). The sand cover an irregular rocky floor, but occasionally local prominences and ridge rise above the level of the sand. The Thar Desert extends into Pakistan but nearly 62% is present in the western Rajasthan. Rajasthan (23° 4’ - 30° 11’ N and 69° 29’ - 78° 17’ E) with as area of 3,42,239 sq. km. which constitute 10.41% of the land area of the country, is the largest state of India. Rajasthan, which literally means, “abode of kings” is a vibrant, exotic state where tradition and royal glory meet in a riot of colours against the vast backdrop of sand and desert. The major part of Thar is occupied either by dry open grassland or by grassland interspersed with trees and thorny bushes (Gupta 1975). The main grass type of the Thar is Dichanthium-LasuirusCenchrus (Dabadghad and Shankarnarayan 1973). Nearly 58% of the Thar is covered with sand dunes and interdunal valleys. The main flora on the dunes and interdunes are Capparis decidua, Calotropis procera, Calligonum polygonoides, Acacia Senegal, Prosopis cineraria, Aerva javanica, Aristida adescensionis and other psammophytic species (Shetty 1994). Main trees and shrubs are of Acacia jacquemontii, Tecomella undulata, Salvadora oleoides and Ziziphus nummularia.

Vast grasslands are home of Great Indian Bustard

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About the Project:

I

ndia is a home to 165 globally threatened bird species, according to the International Union for Conservator of Nature (IUCN) Red List. There are 25 species of bustards in the world out of that Indian Subcontinent had six species, of which Great Indian Bustard is listed as Critically Endangered Bird. Great Indian Bustard (GIB) is highly endangered obligate grassland species with strong territorial nature belonging to Otididae family. It is highly dependent on traditional farming and traditional practices of grassland management. It has suffered a drastic decline in numbers mainly because of habitat destruction and poaching. Birds are the biological indicators of the environment. The dry savannah grasslands of the hot arid and semi-arid regions of peninsular India are considered as prime and pristine habitat for GIB. With overall about 200 GIBs left in the world, the reason behind this was mainly due to habitat deterioration, poaching, hunting, habitat disturbance, and various other factors. It is known to abandon its nest due to any disturbances. A conservation awareness project was conceived after long discussion with Dr. A. R. Rahmani, Director, Bombay Natural History Society, Mumbai, and a idea was developed to start this awareness project to raise the issue with the locals about its status and threatening population at the verge of extinction, around the existing GIB localities in Thar Desert.

A brief history and historical records of GIB in this landscape

G

reat Indian Bustard was a very common bird in the past, and also one of the favorite birds among game hunters in this region. There have been many hunting notes by erstwhile rulers about the hunting of this majestic grassland bird though direct shooting as well as with the help of

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trained Faclons. Historically the species was distributed throughout the western half of India, from Punjab and Haryana in North to Tamil Nadu in south and Rajasthan in west to Orissa in east, spanning eleven states (Rahmani, 1989). The last three decades have seen a drastic reduction in the range occupancy of this species. The current distribution is restricted to fragmented pockets in six states of the country (Fig 1.). In Rajasthan, the desert National Park in the districts of Jaisalmer and Barmer along with the agro-pastoral landscapes of Bikaner holds the largest global population currently numbering between 100-125 birds, along with another 25-50 birds in Ajmer, Pali and Tonk districts (Rahmani, 2006). All other populations are less then 35 birds each (BirdLife International).

Before 1900

A

s per the old records stated by Rahmani (1997), that the Great Indian Bustard was plentiful in Rajasthan (Jerdon 1864, Barnes 1886, 1891, Blanford 1898, Baker 1929). Whereas, Blanford (1898) reported the whole of Rajasthan and eastern Sind (Pakistan) as the distributional range of the bustard. The birds were regularly shot in Sind (Hume 1873, Butler 1878). Hume (1890) mentioned that upto 100 bustard eggs were collected by Khan Nizam-oo-din Khan from Bikaner region. This egg collection report highlights the importance of particular region as a good breeding ground.

After 1900

T

here was a sound information available about the Great Indian Bustard this phase. Prakash and Ghosh (1963, 1964) mentioned “sizable numbers” of bustards in the Ramdeora region of Jaisalmer district. Dr. Salim Ali in 1970, mentioned from the data supplied by Dharmakumarsinhji said that nearly 500 bustards must be present in Rajasthan. After the increased awareness and development of interest in natural history studies many sighting records were given (Prakash, 1980, Kapoor and Bhatia 1980, Saxena and Sen, 1980, Rathore, 1980, Goriup and Vardhan 1980). These later sightings mentioned few new areas for GIB presence, and it was possible either because of increase in number of birds or due to more intensive searches. Perhaps both the reason could be responsible for sightings of bustards in widely separated areas like Sorson near Kota, (Singh, 1980), Sonkhaliya near Ajmer (Rathore, 1980), Sudasari, Khuri and Dhanana in Jaisalmer (Kapoor and Bhatia, 1980), Bhinmal in Jalore and Biyatra in Bikaner (Vyas et al., 1980). Table 1. Past and present distribution of GIB in India and Pakistan S. No. 1.

Name of the State

Past (estimated

Andhra Pradesh, India

80-100

2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Karnataka, India Maharashtra, India Madhya Pradesh, India Gujarat, India Rajasthan, India Cholistan desert, Pakistan

20-30 c.60 30-35 c.50 500 DNA

1980's)

Present Source population 25-30 Rao and Javed, 2005