IWN Summary — Wednesday, 21 October 2026
The first captive-bred Great Indian Bustard to be lost since releases began has been killed by a desert fox within days of leaving its enclosure, a setback for a recovery effort that has taken the best part of a decade to reach the point of letting birds go.
The bird was a six-month-old male released into Desert National Park in Jaisalmer, and it was attacked at a natural water source inside the park, ETV Bharat reported on 21 October. Wildlife Institute of India (WII) scientists and forest staff were alerted by the bird’s satellite tag and reached the spot after it had died, finding its remains and feathers but no sign of the fox. They recovered the tag and took blood samples.
WII Director Govind Sagar Bhardwaj is reported to have said that predation is a natural process in the wild and that the field teams remain motivated. Forest officials said the attack came despite regular patrolling. The three other birds released so far are reported safe and moving through different parts of the park. Seven of the 11 birds picked for the first phase will now wait while security and conservation protocols are reviewed.
It is a loss the conservation community has been braced for. Ornithologist Asad Rahmani was quoted by ThePrint publication after the 4 October release as saying that “the bustard will always remain conservation-dependent. And conservation is never final.”
IWN reported the first release of two males at Sam on 4 October. According to ETV Bharat, two more followed at the same release site, which makes four of the 11 identified birds. Our earlier report drew on the Press Information Bureau, which said the programme held 97 birds across its Sam and Ramdevra facilities, 86 of them kept for breeding, and that the release protocol would be refined as the birds were observed. Captive breeding produced 24 chicks in 2025 and 29 in 2026.
The population has fallen from roughly 1,260 birds in 1969 to around 296 in 2011 and about 150 in 2018, and ThePrint’s report puts the wild total now at between 100 and 120. A WII agreement with the International Houbara Conservation Fund in 2018 laid the groundwork for captive breeding, following Project Great Indian Bustard, launched in 2016 with CAMPA funds. Wild eggs were rescued and hand-reared from 2019. On 16 October 2024 the programme hatched India’s first bustard chick by artificial insemination at the Sudasari breeding centre, from a male named Suda and a female named Tony, GKToday reported. A Jumpstart scheme, in which captive-laid eggs are placed in wild nests, ran from 2022 to 2026, alongside an integrated reserve zone of about 3,600 square kilometres and dog-free zones around the breeding grounds, the Free Press Journal reported.
The fox is a fresh threat in a list that already includes power lines, which ThePrint says kill about 18 bustards a year against a wild population it estimates at 100 to 120. The bird’s side-set eyes make wires hard to spot. The Supreme Court ordered in April 2021, in M.K. Ranjit Singh v. Union of India, that lines across 99,000 square kilometres of priority habitat be moved underground or fitted with bird diverters. Conservationist M.K. Ranjitsinh is quoted in the same report asking whether the wires have gone underground, and answering himself: “No. Isn’t that contempt of court?”
Sources: ETV Bharat · Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change · ThePrint · GKToday · Free Press Journal · India Wildlife News