India has taken a significant step in the recovery of the Great Indian Bustard (GIB), with two male birds released into the wild at Sam in Rajasthan’s Desert National Park, Jaisalmer, on October 4.
Union Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Bhupender Yadav released the two birds in the presence of Rajasthan’s Minister for Forest and Environment Sanjay Sharma and senior officials from the Union and state governments.
Editorial Insight
Key Highlights
Important points readers should notice.
Two male Great Indian Bustards were released into the wild on October 4.
The release took place at Sam in Rajasthan’s Desert National Park, Jaisalmer.
The move marks a transition from conservation breeding towards rewilding.
The Sam and Ramdevra facilities currently house 97 GIBs.
Eleven birds have been earmarked for release into the wild.
The programme produced 24 live chicks in 2025 and 29 in 2026.
The release represents an important transition in India’s GIB conservation programme. After years of conservation breeding to establish a viable population under controlled conditions, the programme is now moving towards rewilding and augmenting the species in its natural habitat.
Officials said scientific learnings from the release will be used to progressively refine protocols for subsequent releases.
The Bustard Recovery Programme is a collaborative initiative of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, the Rajasthan Forest Department and the Wildlife Institute of India. The programme also has technical collaboration from the International Fund for Houbara Conservation and funding support from National CAMPA.
Editorial Analysis
Why This Matters
The release is important because India’s GIB conservation programme is moving beyond maintaining a captive-breeding population towards restoring captive-bred birds in their natural habitat. The pilot rewilding effort will provide scientific information about the birds’ adaptation to natural conditions and help conservation teams improve methods for future releases. The programme also links species recovery with protection and restoration of the grassland habitat on which the Great Indian Bustard depends.
Its work covers conservation breeding, habitat management, threat mitigation, habitat restoration and community engagement.
The conservation-breeding facilities at Sam and Ramdevra currently house 97 Great Indian Bustards. Of these, 40 originated from wild-laid eggs and 57 were bred in captivity.
The programme is maintaining 86 birds for captive reproduction, while 11 have been earmarked for release into the wild. The two birds released on October 4 were among those selected for reintroduction.
Captive reproduction produced 24 live chicks during 2025 and 29 during 2026, according to the Environment Ministry.
The programme has also used a scientific “jumpstart” approach in which captive-laid eggs were placed in wild nests for incubation by wild females. This intervention resulted in six chicks hatching in Rajasthan and two in Gujarat.
Habitat restoration is another major part of the recovery programme. The Rajasthan Forest Department has established around 200 square kilometres of fenced grassland enclosures inside the Desert National Park. Long-term telemetry studies by the Wildlife Institute of India have identified these enclosures as important breeding habitats for the species.
The latest release follows the October 3 initiation of the process for releasing captive-bred GIBs, when officials also inaugurated a newly developed rewilding aviary at the conservation facilities.
