Silence and Neglect Will No Longer be Tolerated in the Battle to Save the Great Indian Bustard

Great Indian bustard

A great Indian bustard recently died as a result of of hitting a high-tension wire at Ramdeora enclosure in Rajasthan's Jaisalmer district, making it the fourth bustard to have died in this way in the last one year. The death of this bustard has been attributed to the silence and carelessness of the authorities, which irritated wildlife enthusiasts and prompting them to climb up a high-tension wire pole to voice their protest. They eventually came down after a lot of persuasion. A wildlife enthusiast named Radheyshyam Pemani was the first to reach the spot where the bird had died and informed the authorities. The bird was found lying dead just 100 meters away from the high-tension wire pole it had hit while flying at night. According to Ashok Mehria, Deputy Conservator of Forests in Desert National Park, the bustard must have collided with the wires because of rains on Tuesday night. He further added that doctors were called on the spot, post-mortem was carried out, and the bird's body was disposed of. A report will disclose the bustard's death, but at first sight appears to have died after hitting the high-tension wires.

Bustard pair in Desert National Park, one of the last strongholds for this magnificent bird

Y.S Jhala, a senior scientist from the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), stated that bustards were killed last year in three separate incidents after which the state government of Rajasthan demanded to install bird diverters in the birds' flight zone and two meetings were held with the Chief Minister, but till now, no action has been taken. He further added that the government should have done this work at the earliest by giving guidance to its officers and delay will only lead to the bustards' extinction. Rajasthan chief wildlife warden G.V Reddy affirming this said it is an urgent issue. He indicated that a letter was sent to the electricity department earlier demanding it to put bird diverters in the flight zone of the bustard, but the department did not take any action in this regard. He further added that another has been written to the department in this regard and it also included that if the work has not begun, then the forest department under the wildlife protection act will take action. Once again, the electricity department did not take the letter seriously and has not given any reply so far. Now, the forest department is going to write a letter as final reminder to the electricity company. As far as putting high-tension wire underground in bustard flight zone, it is impossible at present and huge amount will be needed, which is also not possible.

View of sand dunes in Desert National Park

It deeply hurts me and enrages me to see that there has not been any action taken to save the great Indian bustard from extinction. Despite all the letters being sent to windmill companies and the electricity department on a repeated basis, no action has been taken by these establishments which goes to show that they are not taking the matter seriously by putting up bird diverters to prevent further loss of these magnificent birds. Silence and neglect is pushing the great Indian bustard closer and closer to extinction and that is something which will no longer be tolerated from here on. I urge the government of Rajasthan to take this issue seriously and act upon it at earliest without any sort of delay. The great Indian bustard is the state bird of Rajasthan and losing it to extinction at present will result in the state losing a significant portion of its culture and heritage. This also means that the new generation would never see a wild, free-roaming bustard in Rajasthan or anywhere in India. I urge the electricity department and windmill companies operating in Rajasthan to seriously act upon this issue and follow the suggestions requested by the forest department. Otherwise, wildlife enthusiasts and officials will be forced to take the windmill and electricity companies to court. I repeat...silence and negligence will NO LONGER BE TOLERATED!!!! The great Indian bustard is in dire need of help and it is time that the government should start acting upon it at the request of wildlife officials and the public.

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Illegal Lion Shows in Gir Forest are Unacceptable

Asiatic lioness

The Asiatic lion has been dubbed by local people and the media as the "Pride of Gujarat." However, having such a significant title has also made it a victim of harassment by local people in its homeland. This was seen in a recent case of a video that went viral on Wednesday showing seven people harassing a lioness while celebrating in a farm in the Gir Somnath district. The video showed two people, one of them holding a hen, provoking the lioness standing only a few feet away from him. The man repeatedly harassed the lioness by pretending to throw the hen, even as she watched helplessly. At one point, his friend asked him to make the lioness roar. When the lioness came closer, the man boastfully told his friend that this is a regular routine and that the lioness is not scared of them. He even shooed the lioness for a couple seconds and talked with his friends about how this was the third hen being fed to her that day. The video also showed a woman cooking for the seven friends, who warned not to aggravate the lioness for fear that she may attack. Finally, the man threw the hen and the lioness grabbed it and disappeared into the field behind the seven friends. The seven friends were arrested from the village last month. According to Chief Conservator of Forests D.T Vasavada, because harassing the lions with food and making them come so close has become a routine, the animals might be used to getting food in this way. This was not the only incident of harassing lions in Gir Forest; another had occurred on May 19 in which seven people, including four tourists from Ahmedabad, were caught in the act while watching an illegal lion show in the Babaria range. The tourists had stayed at a farmhouse near Gir Forest and planned the show in the village of Jakhiya in the Gir Somnath district.

Gir Forest

I cannot think of anything more appalling and loathsome than using Gujarat's lions as "performers" for public entertainment in their native homeland. These animals are highly regarded as symbols of Gujarat's heritage and have long been part of India's history and culture from the Lion Capital of Ashoka to Narasimha. Even Bharat Mata, the national personification of India, is often depicted with a lion by her side. How can an animal of such charisma be subjected to harassment for public entertainment? I believe that it is absolutely necessary to address this issue of illegal lion shows in order to raise public awareness and act upon it. The public needs to be educated about the importance of lions in Gujarat and India and that planning such performances is unacceptable and dangerous. There is always a possibility that harassing lions with food can turn them into man-eaters and may result in the animals giving up hunting their natural prey like deer, antelope, and wild pig. When this happens theoretically, who can you blame? The lions or the people? This is why it is essential to enforce strict rules against lion shows in Gir Forest and anybody caught committing such dangerous and loathsome antics should be punished significantly to send a message to other people.

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Can Cross-fostering Help in Mexican Wolf Conservation?

A week-old Mexican wolf pup after arriving in Albuquerque, New Mexico

The U.S Fish and Wildlife Service recently stated that it is hopeful that a technique known as cross-fostering will help in the recovery of Mexican wolves, which currently number over 100 animals in the U.S. The main goal of cross-fostering is to increase the wolf population's inadequate genetic diversity, due to the whole current population being descended from only seven wolves pulled from the wild. However, cross-fostering is also very difficult and requires careful coordination by several wolf recovery facilities in Mexico and the U.S. The process begins when the wolves breed in February and March. The 50 or so facilities in both the countries would notify the Fish and Wildlife Service of possible future pups after observing breeding pairs. Once the females give birth to litters after 63 days, things have to move fast. The captive pups and their wild counterparts should be under 14 days old and the captive ones cannot be separated from their mothers until they are at least five days old. In addition, wild wolves a little hard to monitor in order to know when a litter has been born than their captive counterparts. The recovery team would track a female wolf's movement using radio collars placed on many adult wolves, in order to look for signs that she may be making a den. Once it has been confirmed that the female wolf has been in the same spot for a few days, the team would presume that she has had a litter. The captive pups would be matched with possible wolf dens in the wild.

Gila National Forest

A recent case of cross-fostering occurred on May 7 with the birth of four wolf pups from a litter of eight at the Endangered Wolf Center in Eureka, Missouri. The pups were selected to be placed in two dens in Gila National Forest in New Mexico. After arriving at Gila National Forest, two of the four pups were transported to a den in the Iron Creek area while the other half were taken to a den in the Lava area. It is said that this will possibly be the last cross-fostering of the year and the Fish and Wildlife Service is confident that the method will be at least as useful as releasing adult wolves into the wild. According to the agency's assistant Mexican wolf recovery coordinator Maggie Dwire, releases of pups and adult wolves from captivity have a 28 percent success rate. She further added that if cross-fostering works as well as releasing, then it would be favored. Since 2014, twelve wolf pups were cross-fostered into wild litters out of which four were recorded to have survived, with three of them having produced pups in the wild.

A pair of Mexican wolves at the Endangered Wolf Center

Although I have nothing against cross-fostering, I really think this technique should be taken carefully and closely monitored when helping save Mexican wolves. One thing I would suggest is to closely monitor captive wolf pups that have been placed in a wild litter and check for any issues such as whether the pups are being deprived of their surrogate mother's milk. Same suggestion applies to wild wolf pups when they are placed in foster care of their captive surrogate mother. This would help in understanding whether cross-fostering can help in the conservation of Mexican wolves. In addition, I also believe that the Fish and Wildlife Service should stay in contact with conservation groups like the Center for Biological Diversity who can point out any potential flaws in the agency's Mexican wolf recovery plan and how to improvise it. Even though the Fish and Wildlife Service stated it is confident that cross-fostering will help in saving the wolves, it should not be considered as the only method in the recovery of the wolves. Saving Mexican wolves and other endangered species requires several techniques other than cross-fostering, such as captive-breeding, releasing individuals into the wild from captivity, and conducting awareness workshops addressed to the public on the importance of conserving the wolves and why it is crucial. I believe that using a combination of various conservation techniques, including cross-fostering, could help in the conservation of Mexican wolves and further increase their populations in the wild.

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