5th April 2019

HARIDWAR: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed the Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) to submit a “factual report” within two months regarding the last remaining Great Indian Bustard (GIB), a critically endangered bird.

A petition was filed by Centre for Wildlife and Environment Litigation (CWEL) which had stated that wind power was a major threat to GIBs and most of the wind power projects were located in the natural habitats of the birds in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Karnataka and Maharashtra.

Gaurav Kumar Bansal, advocate appearing for CWEL told TOI, “Due to wind power lines, millions of birds die every year.” In court, he also drew the attention of the tribunal to the 30th Forest Advisory Committee report which talks of placing transmission lines underground in natural habitats of GIBs.

The bird was listed as a critically endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 2013. The IUCN report at that time had pointed out that in the absence of a proper land distribution policy, the habitat of the bird had been encroached upon, especially in and around bustard sanctuaries in Maharashtra and the Kutch region of Gujarat.

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