By Shishir Prashant 
PrashantNews
Union Forest and Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav on Saturday announced a new milestone in the conservation of the critically endangered Great Indian Bustard (GIB) with the birth of a chick in Gujarat through jumpstart approach.
Gujarat witnessed the birth of a chick after a decade, in Kutch, through a novel conservation measure known as the Jumpstart Approach. The effort was planned a year back which was coordinated by the MoEF along with the State Forest Departments of Rajasthan and Gujarat and the Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India (WII).
“This is the first inter-state jump start initiative of the GIB in the country, that was successfully executed in Gujarat. It is important to mention that in Gujarat only three female GIBs are surviving in the grasslands of Kutch, leaving no possibility of having a fertile egg in the wild. It took an arduous 770km road journey to transport an incubated egg to the desired nesting site in Kutch, which was undertaken without a break by creating a halt-free corridor from Sam (Rajasthan) to Naliya (Gujarat),” Yadav said.
In the social media post, Yadav noted that Project GIB was envisioned by Narendra Modi in 2011 to conserve the Great Indian Bustard in its natural habitats. The project which was formally launched in 2016 has been making steady progress in strengthening conservation and recovery efforts for the species.
As a result the number of birds in conservation breeding centres, started at Sam and Ramdevra in Rajasthan, have reached 73 with addition of 5 new chicks in this season and we are moving ahead towards rewilding of birds in near future.
In achieving another milestone, a female GIB, tagged in August 2025, had laid an infertile egg in Kutch, as this population has lost all its males long back. In a major trans-state conservation effort, a captive-bred GIB egg from the conservation breeding program in Rajasthan was transported by road over 19 hours in a handheld portable incubator and was replaced in the nest on 22 March.
The female completed incubating this fertile egg and hatched it on March 26. The field monitoring team found the young chick being reared by its foster mother.
This effort is among one of the many steps to recover the critically endangered Great Indian Bustard populations.
“With the commitment to save GIB, we are making great progress in India’s conservation journey,” Yadav said.
Congratulations to all scientists, field officers and wildlife enthusiasts who made this possible.
“We are keeping our fingers crossed for the survival of the chick. At the same time we remain committed to leaving no stone unturned to make the endeavour successful,” Yadav said.