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.
"Gujarat sees a GIB chick after a decade, through a novel conservation measure - the jumpstart approach, coordinated by the Ministry, State Forest Departments of Rajasthan and Gujarat, and Wildlife Institute of India," he said in a post on X.
According to the Environment ministry officials, this is the first inter-state jump start initiative of the GIB in the country, that was successfully executed in Gujarat.
An incubated egg was transported over a challenging 770-km road journey to its designated nesting site in Kutch, with authorities ensuring a seamless, non-stop transit by creating a halt-free corridor from Sam in Rajasthan to Naliya in Gujarat.
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.
"Giving further details on the path-breaking initiative, the Minister said that the female GIB tagged in August 2025 laid an infertile egg in Kutch, where the local population had lost all its males long ago.
"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.
