Rajasthan is not only preserving it’s heritage and architecture grandeur, earnest efforts to conserve state flora and fauna are also being taken.
Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje announced enormous funds dedicated towards the development of grasslands at the national park. In CM Raje’s budget speech of 2017-18, a hefty sum of Rs 10 crore was allocated towards grasslands and national parks in the Thar Desert. Notably, these grasslands will be spread across 3,162 square kilometers.
Environment minister Anil Madhav Dave recently announced a new breeding centre for GIB in Sorsan, Kota in his Lok Sabha speech on Tuesday. This move is strategized to increase the population of Great Indian Bustard (GIB).
Responding to a question in nexus with conservation of the endangering specie, he responded with a comprehensive strategy to save GIB from extinction. Dave said: “The ministry has taken up the initiative to conserve the critically endangered bird with technical supervision of the Wildlife Institute of India (WII).”
The objective of the programme is to boost the population of the GIB and to release the chicks in the wild for increasing their population, the minister said. Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra are the three states which will be intrinsically involved in this programme.
Dave also shed light on the unconditional support of Indian army in conserving the specie. He said that the Jodhpur Command Warfare Centre was held to seek the army’s cooperation in GIB. This event was driven by the fact that close to 50% GIB population dwells in army-controlled areas.
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) urged that said that bird’s conservation breeding programme be given top priority as the number of endangering specie is plunging fast in the national park in Barmer and Jaisalmer districts.
“Permission has been granted to install satellite tags on six birds for monitoring and tracking its location,” said Dave.
The forest department had opined 10 potential locations for setting up of the breeding facility. The forest department consulted a prominent expert from Scotland named Houbara Breeding Center, Uzbekistan. However, amongst the 10 locations, Sorsan near Kota was announced as the final location for opening a breeding center.
