Guarding the great Indian bustard: Herders, farmers as a first line of defence

It helps that Dookia, who grew up in Rajasthan, speaks the dialects of the region around Jaisalmer’s Desert National Park (DNP), a crucial GIB habitat.

In 2015, the couple decided to formalise their efforts and set up the GIB Community Conservation Programme under their Ecology, Rural Development & Sustainability (ERDS) Foundation. They have since built an extended network with the primary aim of tracking the falling numbers of this critically endangered bird, and preventing poaching. Excerpts from an interview.

How did this project begin?

Dookia: In July 2015, we collaborated with the Rajasthan forest department on a nature-guide training programme where 25 young people from villages around the Desert National Park were trained over six months. They were then given permission to guide tourists inside national parks and they started earning a living as nature guides. The alternative was seasonal work as drivers for hotels, so this was viewed as a real opportunity.

Rawat: No tourist is allowed to visit protected enclosures without a guide… Following this, we kick-started an anti-poaching and GIB population monitoring network outside DNP enclosures, where locals act as citizen-scientist field researchers.

Can you tell us how it works on the ground?

Dookia: We use an open-project format, where volunteers associate with us when needed. There are currently six dedicated volunteers, and another 150 who contribute from time to time. They range in age from 24 to 65. Many are farmers and shepherds.

How have these communities typically coexisted with the great Indian bustard?

Dookia: They are the real custodians who have been sharing the landscape with animals for centuries. In the case of the GIB, which is a land-nesting and land-dwelling bird, the presence of humans in their habitats is inevitable. The GIB feeds on dung beetles, among other things, which makes cattle grazing an important activity in the GIB area. Many of the bird’s food items come from agriculture residue and harvested fields.

Rawat: The answer to any GIB conservation effort lies in ground-level community support. The ultimate aim of a nearby captive breeding project is to augment the population. The vision is long. But if there is no habitat left and if the communities are not supportive to the GIB’s existence, what will these captive bred birds be released into?

You also conduct surveys?

Dookia: In 2006 and 2008, I was awarded a grant by the UK’s Oriental Bird Club to conduct surveys and community awareness campaigns. Similar support from the UK’s Ruffords Small Grant Foundation in 2006, 2008 and 2010 for surveys on the chinkara were also used to look out for the GIB.

I personally saw the GIB in Bikaner until 2004 and received word of GIB sightings from Barmer in 2006. There have been no sightings in either place for a long time.