Written by PPL Newsroom• October 3, 2026• 8:31 am• Nature & Wildlife

Ten captive-bred Great Indian Bustards set for first release in Rajasthan’s Thar

After months in a rewilding tunnel, the birds head to Desert National Park, where scientists will track whether captive breeding can rebuild the wild population.

Rajasthan is preparing to release captive-bred Great Indian Bustards into the wild for the first time. The releases are planned at Ramdevra on 3 October and at Sudasari on 4 October, both in the Desert National Park near Jaisalmer, according to a report in the Free Press Journal. For a critically endangered bird with only about 150 individuals left in the wild, the release tests whether breeding centres can restore a population.

Officials say ten healthy birds have spent months in a specially designed rewilding tunnel, training to cope with natural conditions. The exact number released in the first phase will be decided after a final technical assessment by scientists of the Wildlife Institute of India (WII). We could not confirm from the sources available that the releases have already taken place.

From egg collection to release

The programme began with a different method. Scientists collected Great Indian Bustard eggs from wild nests and incubated them artificially. The hatchlings were hand-reared, and once the birds matured, the team bred them in captivity through natural mating and artificial insemination.

Numbers have grown steadily. In March 2026 the Union Environment Minister, Bhupender Yadav, said the tally of birds in captivity had reached 70 with two new chicks. ThePrint reported that this was up from just 16 four years earlier.

The rewilding tunnel at the Godawan Conservation Centre in Ramdevra cost Rs 9.25 crore. It is meant to prepare captive-bred chicks for survival by limiting human contact and simulating natural conditions.

Why Thar, and why now

The birds were first meant for Gujarat’s Kutch region. After consulting experts, authorities chose the Thar Desert, the species’ original habitat.

The wild birds face real dangers. The Great Indian Bustard has poor frontal vision and is heavy, so it struggles to avoid power lines, which pose the biggest threat to the species. Gulf News also lists habitat loss, feral dogs and human disturbance among the threats.

What this means for India

The Great Indian Bustard is Rajasthan’s state bird and a flagship species of India’s dry grasslands. This release moves Project GIB from breeding in captivity to the harder task of survival in the wild. Whatever the first results, the monitoring should show how captive-bred birds adapt. It will also show whether protecting grasslands and managing power lines can keep them alive, which matters for the few wild birds that remain in Rajasthan and elsewhere.

What happens next

The release is the start of a long observation period. Under the plan, the birds will be tracked after release to monitor their behaviour, survival and ability to adapt to the wild. The aim, according to the report, is to assess whether captive-bred birds can successfully establish themselves in their natural habitat.

Researchers are already learning from wild birds. Ten wild females in Jaisalmer have been fitted with GPS tags, showing where they travel, which habitats they choose and how they use the landscape. That data can help judge how the released birds behave.

Habitat is the other half of the plan. A conservation plan described by Indian Masterminds proposes Critical Conservation Areas of 200–500 sq km, with more than 25% perennial grassland cover. The Union Environment Minister had earlier said the releases would be “soft” releases, a new and challenging beginning for the project. The 3 and 4 October releases are the first test of that approach.