No closure for 5 female Great Indian Bustards after lone male bird went missing 2 years ago

AHMEDABAD: Indian law provides that a missing person can be declared dead seven years after his disappearance. However, with no such law guiding the land of the jungle, the five Great Indian Bustard (GIB) females staring at extinction with their lone male mate going missing two years ago may not get a closure anytime soon.
The GIBs are known as the heaviest birds. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has categorised GIB as “critically endangered” in July 2013.
Closer home, the Kutch Great Indian Bustard Sanctuary, also known as Lala–Parjan Sanctuary, located in Naliya had a peak of 58 birds in early 2000 which has dwindled to just 6 in 2019 The big blow came when the only male GIB went missing in September 2018. A major manhunt was launched to trace the missing male but all efforts have gone in vain.
Devesh Gadhvi, deputy director of The Corbett Foundation and a member of the Bustard Specialist Group of IUCN, says, “After being sighted last in September 2018, the male bird has done a disappearing act. In the past there have been reports of GIB sighting in Velavadar, which is 350 km form the Bustard Sanctuary in Kutch, triggering a debate over its possible migration. But sans any tagging, it is not possible to conclude it for a fact.”
Experts are intensely debating the possibility of death of the male GIB, citing that even if the bird migrates, it is known to come back to its place of origin once a year. “With Gujarat’s male GIB, this has not happened,” said an expert choosing not to go official with the speculation.
Forest officials while rejecting the possibility of it being killed by wild animals say the only possibility is that the male got fried by high tension power lines in the sanctuary and carcass was disposed to claim it has gone missing.
Future seems tense for the five female GIBs without mating. Hopes of help from Rajasthan’s GIB Captive Breeding Centre have currently dashed as WII experts, who are part of the breeding initiative, say it is yet to commence operations.