Three weeks of India wildlife news, distilled: a landmark trafficking bust rescuing 440+ animals, cheetahs getting a third home at Nauradehi, a Great Indian Bustard chick surviving 40 days in Kutch, the Gir lion structural crisis, wild water buffalo returning to Kanha after a century, and early AITE 2026 tiger census results.
Great Indian Bustard
Maharashtra’s GR No. SAVVI-2025/PR.KR.11/VANE-11, issued on 7 May 2026, explicitly prohibits tree planting in grasslands and wetlands — the first time a government resolution has put this in writing at scale. The same order that launched a 300-crore plantation drive also protects the ecosystems most at risk from it.
India’s land records classify open grasslands as “wasteland” because they carry no trees. That single word is why the Great Indian Bustard is disappearing, why the blackbuck needs reintroduction programmes, and why the cheetah has no secured wild habitat to return to.
A Great Indian Bustard chick hatched in Kutch, Gujarat using the jumpstart method — the first in Gujarat in over a decade. It learned to fly. Then it vanished. The story of a bird on the edge, and the science trying to pull it back.