Move aimed at protecting Great Indian Bustards, lesser floricans
The Supreme Court of India on April 20, 2022 directed the governments of Rajasthan and Gujarat to ensure installation of bird-diverters on power lines before July 20, 2022. The move is aimed at protecting the Great Indian Bustard (GIB), the state bird of Rajasthan, and the lesser floricans in the area.
The court order directed the two states as well as all private power producers to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the total length of transmission lines and the estimated number of bird diverters in three weeks.
A three-member committee was constituted on the order of the apex court April 19, 2021 to look into installing underground power lines. It comprised Rahul Rawat, scientist with the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Sutirtha Dutta, scientist with the Wildlife Institute of India, and Devesh Gadhavi, deputy director of Corbett Foundation.
The committee had submitted its report on April 20, 2022 indicating that it had received eight applications requesting exemption from the requirement of setting up underground transmission lines.
The panel permitted only two applicants to lay overhead transmission lines, but with bird diverters. The other six applications are under scrutiny by the committee
The court also directed the committee to formulate the standards of quality required for bird diverters in consultation with the Central Electricity Authority within a month. It ordered state governments and private power companies to take necessary steps to maintain uniformity and install the diverters on overhead power lines, directing them to submit a compliance report for the same a week before the next date of listing on July 20.
“The injunction which has been imposed in the order of this Court from the installation of fresh overhead transmission lines, save with the approval of the Committee, shall be scrupulously enforced,” read the order.
Wildlife conservationist MK Ranjitsinh Jhala had filed a petition with SC in 2019 for power companies to lay underground wiring in the sacred groves of Jaisalmer district in Rajasthan. The petition was to protect GIBs and lesser floricans from extinction.
SC had ordered the power companies in Rajasthan and Gujarat April 19, 2021 to make the high-tension power lines underground so that large birds do not get caught in the web.
Around 122 of the total 150 GIBs found in the country were in Jaisalmer, according to a 2018 GIB count. Locals estimate that the population had declined further since then.
A GIB was found dead on April 22 in the Parewar village of Jaisalmer. Locals suspect that it was electrocuted after getting caught in the web of power lines.
The birds weigh 14-15 kilograms each and can reach a height of up to 4 feet, making them too heavy to change their course mid-way when they wander too close to power lines. They get electrocuted and die, Parth Jagani, a local conservationist in Jaisalmer said, stressing on the importance of installing bird-diverters and underground transmission lines.
To conserve and protect the GIBs, a Conservation Breeding Centre for the Great Indian Bustard was set up in Sam, Jaisalmer.
It is managed by Wildlife Institute of India Scientists, Rajasthan Forest Department with technical assistance of the International Fund for Houbara Conservation and Reneco, Abu Dhabi in June 2019.
They collect eggs from the wild and hatch them in captivity. As of March 2022, 16 GIB chicks were born in captivity.
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