A plan to save the Great Indian Bustard

A plan to save the Great Indian Bustard

Context:

• The Forest Department is framing an action plan to save Great Indian Bustard in Karnataka where its numbers are fast decreasing.

About Great Indian Bustard:

• The Great Indian Bustard or Indian bustard is a bustard found in India and the adjoining regions of Pakistan.
• A large bird with a horizontal body and long bare legs, giving it an ostrich like appearance, this bird is among the heaviest of the flying birds.
• Once common on the dry plains of the Indian subcontinent, as few as 250 individuals were estimated in 2011 to survive and the species is critically endangered by hunting and loss of its habitat, which consists of large expanses of dry grassland and scrub.
• These birds are often found associated in the same habitat as blackbuck. It is protected under Wildlife Protection Act 1972 of India.