A Great Indian Bustard (GIB) chick was born in Gujarat's Kutch after a decade through a novel conservation technique called the jumpstart approach, a significant achievement given that only three female GIBs remain in the region’s grasslands, making natural breeding in the wild nearly impossible, Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav announced on Saturday. The female completed the incubation of the fertile egg and successfully hatched the chick on March 26, with the field monitoring team observing the young chick being reared by its foster mother in its natural habitat. "The minister informed that the number of birds in conservation breeding centres at Sam and Ramdevra in Rajasthan has reached 73, with the addition of five new chicks during the current breeding season. He added that India is now moving ahead towards the rewilding of birds in the near future as part of long-term conservation planning," the Ministry said in a statement. "In a major trans-state conservation effort, a captive-bred GIB egg from the conservation breeding programme in Rajasthan was transported by road for over 19 hours in a handheld portable incubator and was successfully replaced in the nest on 22nd March," it added.

Source: The Telegraph March 28, 2026 13:18 UTC