About the Great Indian Bustard
The Great Indian Bustard is India's most critically endangered bird — a massive, turkey-sized grassland bird that once numbered in the thousands across India's vast dry grasslands and is now reduced to fewer than 150 individuals. The primary population survives in the Desert National Park of Rajasthan; smaller populations persist in Maharashtra and Karnataka. Without immediate intervention, extinction within a decade is considered a real possibility.
Great Indian Bustards are ground-nesting birds of open grasslands and scrub — ecosystems that have been almost entirely converted to agriculture, solar farms, and industrial land. Wind energy and solar panel infrastructure in Rajasthan has been particularly damaging, with birds dying in large numbers after colliding with overhead power lines (they have very limited frontal vision). India's Supreme Court has ordered underground cabling in critical bustard habitat, but implementation has been slow. The species has become a symbol of India's tensions between renewable energy development and wildlife conservation.