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Source: The post is based on the article “Supreme Court floats idea of ‘Project GIB’: What is this endangered bird” published in Indian Express on 1st December 2022.
What is the News?
The Supreme Court has asked the Government if a ‘Project Great Indian Bustard (GIB)’ can be launched on the lines of ‘Project Tiger’.
What is the Great Indian Bustard?
Why is the Great Indian Bustard endangered?
Among the biggest threats to the GIBs are overhead power transmission lines. Due to their poor frontal vision, the birds can’t spot the power lines from a distance and are too heavy to change course when close. Thus, they collide with the cables and die.
According to the Wildlife Institute of India(WII), in Rajasthan, 18 GIBs die every year after colliding with overhead power lines.
About Supreme Court on Great Indian Bustard(GIB) conservation
The Supreme Court in 2021 ordered that all overhead power transmission lines in core and potential GIB habitats in Rajasthan and Gujarat should be made underground.
The court also sought reports from the chief secretaries of Rajasthan and Gujarat in six weeks on the installation of bird diverters (reflector-like structures strung on power cables) in priority areas.
It also asked them to assess the total length of transmission lines that need to go underground in the two states.
