We huddled in our open jeep in the December morning cold as the windchill lowered the temperature to single digits, straining our eyes for its characteristic long white neck. Finally as the bird peeped out over the bushes and then cautiously strode into the open, time literally stood still. A sighting of one male and four female Great Indian Bustards sent excited waves through our group: after all we had just sighted about 5% of the world's population of these birds! Much like a tiger sighting in an Indian forest, except that it's far easier to see a tiger than a bustard nowadays.
We were in Rajasthan on a birding trip to Desert National Park (DNP) and other areas northwest of Jaisalmer with Adesh Shivkar of Nature India. Our targets were the numerous "desert specialists" that make the Thar Desert and dry scrub habitat their home. Desert National Park, south of Jaisalmer is the "last stand" of the Great Indian Bustard (GIB), and host to 40 odd of the estimated remaining population of less than 100 birds. It is the only place in India where a viable breeding population makes a sighting reasonably likely.
DNP has much more than just the GIB. Raptors were everywhere, in the air, on the ground and in whatever tree cover was available. Vultures abounded, attesting to the lack of use in animal husbandry of diclofenac and similar compounds here: we saw Egyptian, Cinereous and Eurasian Griffon Vultures in numbers. The huge and somewhat sluggish Steppe Eagle is a part time scavenger and often kept the vultures company at kills. The stunted trees were dotted with Long-legged Buzzards and Common Kestrels. A Pallid Harrier glided a few feet above the ground as it surveyed its prey. Wheatears (Isabelline, Variable, Desert and Red-tailed or Persian) were on every perch and Larks (Greater Short-toed, Bimaculated, Crested and Desert) were ubiquitous on the ground. The Delicate (Graceful) Prinia and the globally threatened Stolickza's (White-browed) Bushchat, endemic to this area, were personal lifers.
The Thar desert is one large expanse of tawny brown: to survive here, all flora and fauna are similarly camouflaged and you need sharp eyes and an expert guide like Uruz Khan to help you identify birds here. We drove northwest of Jaisalmer to Netsi Lake near Ramgad, a small oasis in the desert where apart from the usual ducks and waders, we were witness to scores of Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouses as they made a simultaneous pit stop for their morning drink. A Pallid Harrier and a Marsh Harrier policed the waterbody. We were after the elusive Water Pipits which didn't show up that day: we feasted our eyes instead on a pair of Laggar Falcons were themselves too busy feasting on a bird kill to object to the gaggle of photographers coming really close.
You need to offroad to see the flatland specialists, truly amazingly adapted to the flat terrain, but simultaneously severely affected by habitat loss. A Greater Hoopoe Lark pair, huge and more like a hoopoe with a curved beak, require acres of absolutely flat land: we were fortunate to see a pair after much searching. The beautiful Cream-colored Courser was seen in greater numbers.
A drive to Khabha Fort on a road adjoining DNP on the last day threw up several rarities. A rare Saker Falcon on a roadside tree was photographed up close. A pair of Common (Punjab) Ravens among a group of crows at a kill brought smiles to our faces. Trumpeter Finches had the near perfect camouflage for the stony ground they prefer.
The majestic GIB once roamed all over the grasslands of the Indian subcontinent, but their numbers have dwindled dramatically. How did we do such a poor job of protecting our most charismatic large bird? Habitat loss (their grasslands have been converted to agricultural lands or developed into property) and bird hits by electricity and telephone lines are the most important reasons. It doesn't help that the bird reproduces slowly as it doesn't lay more than one egg at a time (a recent report documented two eggs for the first time). The bird also does not breed in captivity: a recently initiated captive breeding program hopes to address the latter problem.
Forest officials in DNP have fenced off selected areas of the park and the GIB is rarely seen outside these fenced areas, attesting to the importance of inviolable spaces for these birds to breed and survive. Fencing seems essential to keep the grasslands free of cattle and goats which roam much of the area outside. Indeed crops are sown before the monsoon right inside the National Park and irate farmers expressed displeasure that we were in their tilled land, all well within the National Park core area! The forest department needs to do a much better job of fencing, protecting and extending the available space in and around this last viable habitat of this critically endangered bird. On a bigger scale, there is no effort to identify and protect other as yet untouched open grasslands in West Rajasthan where the GIB might yet be reintroduced. It seems our collective national will (and wildlife budget) is reserved for bringing back Namibian replacements for the now extinct Indian subspecies of cheetah! Sadly extinction looms for the bustard, it seems.
Lovely read...
ReplyDelete