Great Indian Bustard Rewilding: The Power Line Challenge

Two captive bred Great Indian Bustards are scheduled to leave a soft release facility for the wild in Desert National Park, Jaisalmer, on 4 October 2026. The Environment Ministry confirmed the plan on 3 October. The release is scheduled, not yet completed. (PIB)

The immediate question is whether these birds can adapt to life outside captivity. The larger question concerns the landscape awaiting them: can conservation breeding rebuild a wild population while overhead power lines remain a documented threat? (Supreme Court order, 2021)

For UPSC aspirants, Project GIB connects species recovery, renewable energy infrastructure, judicial intervention and international biodiversity commitments. Understanding those connections matters more than memorising a release count.

Project GIB Rewilding: What Has Been Confirmed?

The latest official update distinguishes the first release from the wider programme. Two birds are scheduled for the initial release, while 11 are earmarked for release overall. The facilities at Sam and Ramdevra house 97 birds: 40 originating from wild laid eggs and 57 bred in captivity. Of these 97 birds, 86 are being retained for captive reproduction. (PIB)

This means the broader release pool should not be reported as 11 birds entering the wild simultaneously.

Rajasthan’s Chief Wildlife Warden told The Indian Express that the initial birds would be two males aged four to six months, released into existing enclosures within Desert National Park and fitted with radio tags to monitor movement and behaviour. (The Indian Express)

The recovery programme brings together the Environment Ministry, Rajasthan Forest Department and Wildlife Institute of India, with National CAMPA funding support. A rewilding aviary at Ramdevra provides space for flight development and adaptation before eventual release. (PIB)

What Does Rewilding Actually Involve?

Captive breeding and wild recovery are different stages of conservation. Breeding under managed conditions is ex situ conservation; conserving viable populations in their natural habitats is in situ conservation. A release attempts to connect the two. (IUCN guidelines)

A soft release generally involves acclimatisation and support rather than immediate exposure without preparation. IUCN guidelines emphasise suitable habitat, assessment of continuing threats, monitoring and the ability to adjust management. (IUCN guidelines)

There is also a useful terminology distinction. Releasing animals into an existing population is reinforcement. Reintroduction means restoring a species to a part of its native range where it has disappeared. With wild GIBs already present around the planned release sites, this pilot is better understood as population reinforcement within a broader rewilding programme. (IUCN guidelines)

Great Indian Bustard Protection Status for UPSC Prelims

The Great Indian Bustard, Ardeotis nigriceps, is associated with open grassland landscapes. Rajasthan’s Forest Department treats it as a flagship species for grassland conservation. Protecting the bird therefore also involves protecting an ecosystem, not simply individual animals. (Rajasthan Forest Department)

Its IUCN Red List status is Critically Endangered. It is also listed in Appendix I of CITES, which concerns international trade in threatened species. An IUCN assessment identifies extinction risk; it does not itself function as an Indian criminal law. (BirdLife International)

Under India’s Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, the GIB appears in Schedule I. Hunting is prohibited, subject to the Act’s specified exceptions. (Wild Life (Protection) Act)

It is also included in Appendix I of the Convention on Migratory Species, whose protections extend to habitat conservation and addressing obstacles to migration. CMS and CITES are not interchangeable: their purposes differ. (CMS appendices)

Why Power Lines Are Central to the Extinction Crisis

The physical mechanism is important. In material recorded by the Supreme Court in 2021, the Power Ministry acknowledged the GIB’s poor frontal vision and limited ability to manoeuvre its heavy body away from nearby cables. A bird may detect an obstacle too late to avoid impact. (Supreme Court order, 2021)

Collision is not the same as electrocution. A bustard can die after striking a high voltage cable without receiving an electric shock. Insulating a wire can address electrical contact risks, but does not remove the physical obstacle. (Supreme Court order, 2021)

Hunting, habitat loss and disturbance remain relevant. The Rajasthan conservation programme includes patrolling, habitat protection and community participation. Legal protection should not be mistaken for evidence that poaching has disappeared. (Rajasthan Forest Department)

However, the power line problem explains why stronger enforcement against hunting cannot, by itself, resolve the crisis. A breeding centre can produce another bird; it cannot make the bird’s flight path unobstructed. Recovery requires attention to both population numbers and avoidable mortality.

Supreme Court Rulings: The Full Timeline

Stopping at the 2021 order misses important changes in the legal framework.

19 April 2021: In M.K. Ranjitsinh v. Union of India, the Supreme Court directed undergrounding measures across priority and potential GIB habitats. Its directions distinguished lower voltage lines from higher voltage infrastructure requiring feasibility assessment, with bird flight diverters as an interim measure. (Supreme Court order, 2021)

21 March 2024: The Court modified the broad undergrounding approach covering roughly 99,000 square kilometres in Rajasthan and Gujarat and appointed an expert committee. Government submissions raised technical feasibility, costs and implications for renewable energy development. The judgment also recognised protection against adverse climate change effects under Articles 14 and 21. (Supreme Court judgment, 2024)

It would therefore be inaccurate to reduce the modification to a proven claim that industry pressure alone caused it. The judgment records a wider assessment of conservation, engineering constraints and climate obligations. (Supreme Court judgment, 2024)

19 December 2025: The Court adopted more specific directions, including revised priority areas of 14,013 square kilometres in Rajasthan and 740 in Gujarat. It ordered undergrounding of 250 kilometres of critical Rajasthan power lines identified by WII, alongside other mitigation and rerouting measures, within two years. (Supreme Court judgment, 2025)

That deadline falls in December 2027, after the planned October 2026 release. The timing raises a practical question about protection during the intervening period. It does not, by itself, establish that the chosen release enclosure is unsafe or that particular mitigation works remain incomplete. (Supreme Court judgment, 2025)

Why Green Energy Corridor Phase III Matters

On 30 September 2026, the Union Cabinet approved Green Energy Corridor Phase III. The scheme is intended to strengthen transmission within states and Union Territories to carry up to 135 GW of renewable energy, alongside 50 GWh of battery energy storage. Its announced outlay is ₹1,86,405 crore, with completion targeted for financial year 2032 to 2033. (PIB)

The distinction between generation and transmission matters. Producing solar or wind electricity is only one step; networks must carry it to users. Batteries can help manage variable supply and grid congestion, but storage capacity does not establish whether a transmission route is compatible with wildlife. (PIB)

The Cabinet announcement is a national scheme, not evidence that a particular new line through GIB habitat has been approved. Its relevance is the planning challenge: assessing transmission routes alongside renewable energy expansion, rather than treating their biodiversity effects as separate questions. (PIB)

What a GIB Compatible Energy Landscape Requires

Avoidance before mitigation. IUCN’s technical guidance on wildlife and power lines prioritises avoiding and reducing harmful impacts. Applied to GIB habitat, this means evaluating alternative routes against breeding areas, feeding grounds and movement patterns before infrastructure locations become fixed. (IUCN)

Implementation at the level of individual lines. The 2025 judgment combines identified undergrounding and rerouting measures with directions for connecting power lines to share common stretches where possible. This is more specific than either a blanket exemption for renewables or an assumption that every line has an identical engineering solution. (Supreme Court judgment, 2025)

Evidence on bird flight diverters. These devices mark wires to improve visibility, but their effectiveness cannot simply be assumed for GIBs. The 2025 Court directed authorities to base deployment decisions on scientific analysis. They are not proof that collision risk has been eliminated. (Supreme Court judgment, 2025)

Grassland protection with local participation. Rajasthan’s programme includes native grass enrichment, protected habitat patches and incentives for local people to report and protect birds. Grassland recovery cannot be reduced to counting trees planted. (Rajasthan Forest Department)

For the released birds, radio tracking can reveal movements and emerging risks. Monitoring also needs to examine survival, independent feeding and eventual reproduction. IUCN guidance treats such evidence as the basis for adjusting a conservation translocation. Counting birds released is an output; establishing a viable wild population is the conservation outcome. (IUCN guidelines)

The Kunming Montreal Biodiversity Framework Connection

Three targets of the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework help explain the case.

Target 4 concerns species extinction and genetic diversity. It calls for urgent action to halt human induced extinction of known threatened species and reduce extinction risk, using both in situ and ex situ conservation where needed. For GIB, breeding and habitat protection are therefore complementary, not competing achievements. (Convention on Biological Diversity)

Target 1 concerns biodiversity inclusive spatial planning. Its relevance lies in deciding where infrastructure, conservation and other land uses occur, while respecting the rights of Indigenous peoples and local communities. This places ecological information within land use decisions rather than outside them. (Convention on Biological Diversity)

Target 8 addresses climate change and biodiversity together. It explicitly includes minimising negative impacts of climate action on biodiversity. This is particularly relevant when renewable energy infrastructure overlaps with threatened species habitat. Climate benefits do not remove the need to assess local ecological effects. (Convention on Biological Diversity)

These targets provide a framework for examining India’s biodiversity commitments. The domestic legal directions discussed above provide the more specific requirements for this landscape.

How to Use Project GIB in UPSC Mains

For GS III, connect conservation breeding with habitat fragmentation, environmental assessment and renewable energy infrastructure. For GS II, examine judicial oversight, Centre and state coordination, scientific committees and implementation accountability.

A practice question could be:

“Using Great Indian Bustard conservation as an example, examine the challenges of reconciling renewable energy infrastructure with biodiversity protection.”

Build the answer around the biological threat, the changing court directions, engineering options, community participation and measurable recovery outcomes. Avoid treating conservation and clean energy as automatically incompatible, or assuming that either objective cancels the other.

For a broader preparation method, read PrepAiro’s guide to connecting static knowledge with current affairs.

The first release will test whether captive bred birds can make the transition to wild living. The longer test is whether the surrounding landscape can sustain them. Project GIB’s progress will need to be assessed through survival, reproduction and reduced threats, not the release ceremony alone. (Convention on Biological Diversity)