First Captive-Bred Bustards Set for Wild Release Sunday

Two captive-bred Great Indian Bustards will be released into Desert National Park on October 4, launching the rewilding phase of Project GIB.

For the first time since conservation breeding began, captive-bred Great Indian Bustards — locally known as the Godawan — will be released into their natural habitat. Two male chicks aged four to six months are slated for a pilot release on October 4 into enclosures within the Desert National Park (DNP) in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan. The birds were raised at the Wildlife Institute of India's (WII) breeding centres at Sam and Ramdevra, and The Times of India reports they will be fitted with satellite tags so movement, habitat use and survival can be tracked. The Indian Express reports the event is expected to be presided over by Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav and Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma, while The Times of India adds that Yadav will inaugurate a newly built rewilding tunnel at Ramdevra, built at a cost of around Rs 9 crore, where three chicks are undergoing pre-release training.

Project GIB has run since 2013, but until now its work has been confined to breeding birds behind fences. Beginning in 2019, wild-collected eggs were artificially incubated, hatched and reared by WII scientists, building a captive population as insurance against a wild population that has hovered between 120 and 150 for years. The latest estimate puts about 130 birds (plus or minus 20) in Rajasthan, with only 5-6 individuals across Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka, according to The Indian Express. Both outlets agree roughly 98-99 bustards now live at the breeding centres, with 40 raised through artificial incubation and 57 born to captive-mated birds. The Sunday release marks the official start of the 'rewilding' phase — the first real test of whether birds raised by humans can survive predators, desert foxes and birds of prey in open Thar grassland.

The science around the release is deliberate. Timing was matched to the end of the monsoon, when insect loads peak in the DNP grasslands to help the young chicks feed. The release enclosures span 15-20 square kilometres, and the 2024-25 population survey found at least 40 wild bustards distributed in the northern part of DNP, near the release sites — meaning released birds will land among wild conspecifics. Ahead of the pilot, a few chicks were already moved to an aviary at Sam for soft release away from humans. The Indian Express also notes an earlier success this year: using the 'jumpstart' method, WII scientists swapped infertile eggs laid by wild females in Kutch with viable eggs from Rajasthan's centre, and the chick from the second attempt survived its critical first three months in the wild.

Expectations are sobering. According to The Indian Express, those associated with the project say annual survival of a captive-bred bustard released into the wild runs between 10 and 30 percent, with predation from raptors and desert foxes a constant risk. 'It is the beginning of a long challenge,' WII scientist and project investigator Sutirtha Dutta told the paper. The species lays eggs only once every one to two years, so rebuilding a viable population will be slow. The wild birds themselves face habitat loss, poaching, predator pressure, and, more recently, collisions with power lines built to carry renewable energy out of the desert — a threat the Supreme Court has addressed by ordering lines outside the DNP be buried underground by December 2027. If the two tagged chicks adapt, they become proof of concept for rebuilding the Thar's flagship species.