Environment › Species in news
Birds
India's birds, above all the threatened ones: their status and habitat, the drugs, power lines and lost grassland that kill them, captive breeding and release, and the counts of migratory and resident birds. Prelims has asked about Desert National Park.
Showing 5 of 5 subjects, those that changed from 1 July to 15 September 2026.Show all
The Great Indian Bustard
Copy link to The Great Indian BustardPrelims
- The Great Indian Bustard, or GIB (Ardeotis nigriceps), is a large ground dwelling grassland bird.
- It is Critically Endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.
- It is on Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, the list that carries the strictest protection.
- It lives mainly in the Thar, including Desert National Park in Rajasthan, with a surviving population in the Kachchh grassland of Gujarat.
- Collision with power lines is its best known threat, and the invasive Prosopis juliflora takes over the grassland it needs.
- Captive bred birds are raised under a recovery programme run with the Wildlife Institute of India, and the Kachchh birds now have a Gujarat action plan of their own.
What changed
14 Sep 2026
13 Sep 2026
13 Sep 2026
- The Soft Release Centre is in Kachchh, opened by the Union Environment Minister in September 2026.
- A soft release holds a bird raised in an enclosure in the country it will live in, to acclimatise it before it is released.
27 Jul 2026Update
- Three captive bred chicks have been moved into a rewilding tunnel at the Godawan Conservation Centre at Ramdevra, Jaisalmer, the first time the breeding programme has reached this stage.
- The enclosure copies natural habitat and cuts off human contact, with food supplied unseen and the birds watched by camera.
- The chicks stay about four months before release into Desert National Park. The bustard is the State bird of Rajasthan.
UPSC has asked
- Prelims 2020: Desert National Park
White-bellied heron
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The white-bellied heron (Ardea insignis) is Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List and is in Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. India holds only six to nine birds, on the Noa-Dehing, Lahm and Lohit rivers, with about 70 per cent in the Lohit basin. It feeds only on fish taken in shallow water and nests in tall trees in mature riverside forest.
What changed
22 Jul 2026New subject
- The Forest Advisory Committee has given in principle clearance to a 1,200 MW hydroelectric project on the Lohit that would fell more than 33,000 trees.
- The project's environmental impact assessment does not mention the species.
Mains: an impact assessment that omits a Schedule I species shows how weak appraisal can be.
Indian skimmer
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The Indian skimmer (Rynchops albicollis) is an Endangered fish eating waterbird whose lower mandible is longer than the upper, which lets it skim the water surface in flight. It nests in shallow scrapes on sandbars exposed in mid river during the low water season, so it depends on a natural flow regime and is exposed to dogs, jackals and cattle.
What changed
13 Jul 2026New subject
- A nest guardianship programme run with local people and the forest department has taken numbers in the Chambal from 420 in 2022 to more than 1,000, and is being extended to the Ganga and Yamuna confluence at Prayagraj.
- The work won a 2026 Whitley Award, given by the Whitley Fund for Nature to six grassroots conservationists a year.
Vultures
India's vultures
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- The vultures hit hardest in India are the three Gyps species, the White-rumped, the Long-billed and the Slender-billed.
- All three are Critically Endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.
- The Red-headed vulture is also Critically Endangered, and the Egyptian vulture is Endangered.
- They are listed in Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, the Act's strictest protection.
- They nest on cliffs and on trees across India's plains and peninsula.
- Diclofenac in the carcasses of treated cattle causes kidney failure in Gyps vultures, and is why the three are where they are.
- The Jatayu Conservation Breeding Centre at Pinjore in Haryana breeds all three with the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS).
What changed
6 Sep 2026
4 Jul 2026Updatealso in news
- A white-rumped vulture bred at the Jatayu centre at Pinjore, radio tagged and released at Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve, was electrocuted on a power line after being shifted to Mudumalai. Telemetry had already shown it was habituated to people and unfit for the wild.
Mains: captive breeding restores numbers only where the release landscape is safe, and power lines are an unmanaged cause of death.
The Hindu, 4 Jul 2026: Radio telemetry almost saved this vulture from death (opens in a new tab)
Diclofenac and the drug bans
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Keeping these drugs out of cattle is the whole of the cure, which is why the ban has had to widen beyond the one drug that caused the crash.
- Veterinary diclofenac was banned in 2006, and aceclofenac and ketoprofen followed in 2023.
- Vulture Safe Zones keep such drugs out of an area, so that a bird released there does not meet them again.
What changed
Also filed elsewhere
- Prosopis juliflora · on Invasive alien species
There is no point releasing a grassland bird into scrub, so the tree comes out before the bird goes in.