Lok Sabha Question No. 2060 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-11-29
Subject: Protection and Conservation of Wildlife
Ministry: ENVIRONMENT,  FORESTS AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Asked by: Sandhya Ray, Ganesan Selvam, Kani K. Navas, Rebati Tripura, Subrata Pathak, Dhanush M Kumar

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE

## LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 2060

TO BE ANSWERED ON 29.11.2019

## Protection and Conservation of Wildlife

2060.   SHRIMATI SANDHYA RAY:

SHRI SELVAM G.:

SHRI K. NAVASKANI:

SHRI REBATI TRIPURA:

SHRI SUBRAT PATHAK:

SHRI DHANUSH M. KUMAR :

Will  the  Minister  of  ENVIRONMENT,  FOREST  AND  CLIMATE  CHANGE  be  pleased  to state:

- (a) whether  the  Government  has  initiated  Bustard  Recovery  Programme  for  Great  Indian Bustard, if so, the details and the success achieved as a result thereof;
- (b) the  quantum  of  financial  and  technical  assistance  provided  by  the  Government  to  the State/Union Territory Governments for protection and conservation of wildlife including Great Indian Bustards under the Centrally Sponsored Schemes of 'Integrated Development  of  Wildlife  Habitats'  during  the  last  three  years  and  the  current  year, State/UT-wise;
- (c) whether  the  National  Green  Tribunal  (NGT)  has  asked  the  Centre  to  prepare  a  timebound action plan within two months for protection of the Great Indian Bustards, if so, the details thereof and the action taken by the Government in this regard;
- (d) whether the  Government has provided any  assistance  to  the  Forest  Department  for  the protection of Great Indian Bustard and if so, the details thereof, State/UT-wise including Tamil Nadu; and
- (e) the other steps taken by the Government for protection of endangered animals and birds in the country including Great Indian Bustard?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER  OF  STATE  IN  THE  MINISTRY  OF  ENVIRONMENT,  FOREST  AND CLIMATE CHANGE (SHRI BABUL SUPRIYO)

- (a) Ministry has taken up an initiative on conservation breeding of the Great Indian Bustard in collaboration with the State Governments of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra and technical support from Wildlife Institute of  India, Dehradun and financial support from 'National Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority' with a total budget of Rs. 33.85 crores

for  the  duration  of  five  years  for  the  programme  titled  'Habitat  Improvement and  Conservation  Breeding  of  Great  Indian  Bustard-an  integrated  approach'. The important objective of this programme is to build up captive population of Great  Indian  Bustard  and  to  release  the  chicks  in  the  wild  for  increasing  the population and also to promote in-situ conservation of the species. As part of the programme, currently a facility with incubator, hatchery, chick rearing and housing for captive birds (upto 1 year age) has been set up at Sam, Jaisalmer in Rajasthan  and  is  managed  by  staff  of  Rajasthan  Forest  Department  and scientists  of  Wildlife  Institute  of  India  and  'International  Fund  for  Houbara Conservation' and Reneco, Abu Dhabi who have a vast experience in breeding the related Houbara and Arabian Bustards in captivity.

Some of the success achieved under the Programme includes the following:

- i. Collection of the nine  eggs of GIBs from wild   & hatching at the facility.
- ii. Sterilization  of  more  than  800  dogs  (another  major  threat  to  Great Indian Bustard) by WII in collaboration with HSI in priority habitat of Thar desert.
- iii. Construction of predator proof fences and active removal of Great Indian Bustard nest/egg predators from Great Indian Bustard enclosures.
- iv. Mapping of power lines falling in Great Indian Bustard habitat.
- v. Satellite  tagging  of  Great  Indian  Bustard  and  monitoring  of  their activities for research on their morphological behavior etc.
6. (b) The details of funds provided by the Government to the State/ Union Territory Governments for protection and conservation of wildlife including Great Indian Bustards under the Centrally Sponsored Schemes of 'Integrated Development of Wildlife Habitats' during the last three years and the current year, State/UT wise is at Annexure-1.
7. (c ) The Hon'ble National Green Tribunal (NGT) vide its order dated 04/09/2019 in O.A.  No.  385  /2019  in  the  matter  of  Centre  for  Wildlife  and  Environment Litigation  (CWEL)  Vs.   Union  of  India  &  Ors.,  has  constituted  a  Joint committee comprising the following officials:-
8. (i) Director General of Forest, MoEF&CCChairperson
9. (ii) Additional Director-General of Forest (Wildlife), MoEF&CC-
10. Member Secretary
11. (iii) Nominees of Ministry of Power, Govt. of India.
12. (iv)  Nominees  of  Ministry  of  New  and  Renewable  Energy,  Govt.  of India.
13. (v) Nominees of Energy Departments of Gujarat and Rajasthan.

The mandate of the committee is to form a time-bound action plan within two months on the recommendations of the WII report mentioned in the NGT order dated 04/09/2019. Two meetings of the Committee have taken place.

- (d) The  Ministry  has  provided  funds  to  the  following  State/  Union  Territory Governments  for  the  protection  and  conservation  of  Great  Indian  Bustards under the 'Species Recovery Programme' of Centrally Sponsored Schemes of 'Development of Wildlife Habitats':

(Rs. In lakh)

| Name of State   |   2015-16 | 2016-17   |   2017-18 |   2018-19 |   2019-20 |
|-----------------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|
| Maharashtra     |    110.63 |           |   135.85  |     87.81 |      0    |
| Rajasthan       |     65.36 | 121.64    |   121.387 |      0    |      0    |
| Karnataka       |      0    | 0         |     0     |      0    |     82.58 |

- (e) Steps taken by the Government for protection of endangered animals and birds in the country including Great Indian Bustards are as given below:
- i. Legal  protection  has  been  provided  against  hunting  and  commercial exploitation  under  the  provisions  of  the  Wild  Life  (Protection)  Act, 1972.
- ii. The  Great  Indian  Bustard  is  listed  in  Schedule-I  of  the  Wild  Life (Protection) Act, 1972, thereby, according them highest degree of legal protection from hunting.
- iii. Protected Areas, viz, National Parks, Sanctuaries, Conservation Reserves  and  Community  Reserves  have  been  created  all  over  the country as per the provisions of the Wild Life (Protection) Act,   1972 to provide better protection to Wildlife including eagles.
- iv. Financial  and  technical assistance is being  extended  to  the  State Governments  under various Centrally Sponsored Schemes, viz, 'Development  of Wildlife Habitats'', 'Project Tiger' and 'Project Elephant' for providing better protection and conservation of wildlife.
- v. Important habitats of Great Indian Bustards are designated as National Parks/ Sanctuaries for their better protection.
- vi. The  species has  been  identified  for  conservation  efforts  under  the component 'Species Recovery Programme' of the Centrally Sponsored Scheme  (CSS)  -  Development  of  Wildlife  Habitat.  Financial  and technical assistance is provided to the State/ Union Territory Governments under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Development of

Wildlife Habitat for providing better protection to Great Indian Bustard and its habitat.

- vii. In  consultation  with  State  Government,  Wildlife  Institute  of  India  and international experts, a site for establishment of Conservation breeding Centre has been identified in Kota District, Rajasthan under the above mentioned  project.  Currently  a  facility  with  incubator,  hatcher,  chick rearing and housing for captive birds (upto 1 year age) has been set up at  Sam,  Jaisalmer,  Rajasthan  and  is  managed  by  WII  Scientists, Rajasthan  Forest  Department  with  the  technical assistance of the International  Fund  for  Houbara  Conservation  and  Reneco,  Abu  Dhabi who have a vast experience in breeding the related Houbara and Arabian Bustards in captivity.
- viii. Ministry has also constituted a Task Force for suggesting Eco-friendly measures  to  mitigate  impacts  of  power  transmission  lines  and  other power  transmission  infrastructures  on  wildlife  including  the  Great Indian Bustard.
- ix. Ministry has requested the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and Ministry of Power to direct the power supply agencies to implement the mitigation measures such as installation of bird diverters on power lines, undergrounding of power lines upto 33 KV, painting of vanes of wind turbines etc.

Annexure 1

ANNEXURE  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TP  PART  (b)  OF  THE  LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2060 REGARDING 'PROTECTION AND CONSERVATION OF WILDLIFE' BY SHRIMATI SANDHYA RAY, SHRI SELVAM G., SHRI K. NAVASKANI, SHRI REBATI TRIPURA, SHRI SUBRAT PATHAK, SHRI DHANUSH M. KUMAR DUE FOR REPLY ON 29.11.2019

Details  of  funds  released  under  the  Centrally  Sponsored  Scheme-  'Development  of  Wildlife Habitats' during the last three years and current year are as below:

(Rs.in lakh)

|   S.No. | Name of States/UTs   |   2016-17 |   2017-18 |   2018-19 |   2019-20 (as on 27.11.2019) |
|---------|----------------------|-----------|-----------|-----------|------------------------------|
|       1 | A&NIslands           |  118.49   |  141.934  |    191    |                      132.64  |
|       2 | Andhra Pradesh       |    0      |    0      |     75    |                        0     |
|       3 | Arunachal Pradesh    |  256.811  |  269.935  |    344.42 |                      414.14  |
|       4 | Assam                |    0      |  275.827  |    265.32 |                      164.26  |
|       5 | Bihar                |  100.576  |  322.674  |    749    |                      141.376 |
|       6 | Chandigarh           |   26.0651 |   26.065  |      0    |                        0     |
|       7 | Chhattisgarh         |  278.945  |  435.014  |    350.61 |                      310.032 |
|       8 | Goa                  |    0      |   85.9938 |      0    |                        0     |
|       9 | Gujarat              |  497.604  |  558.52   |   2232    |                        0     |
|      10 | Haryana              |  124.657  |  181.445  |    155    |                      237.608 |
|      11 | Himachal Pradesh     |  280.31   |  237.411  |    370.3  |                      305.766 |
|      12 | Jammu& Kashmir       |  336.506  |  577.915  |    492.43 |                        0     |
|      13 | Jharkhand            |    0      |   95.607  |     50.51 |                       93.96  |
|      14 | Karnataka            |  325.52   |  427.89   |    653    |                      418.568 |
|      15 | Kerala               | 1928.42   |  900.834  |   1293.4  |                      574.916 |
|      16 | Madhya Pradesh       |  322.265  | 1379.49   |    912.2  |                      629.266 |
|      17 | Maharashtra          |  497.35   |  808.056  |   1031.2  |                      553.333 |
|      18 | Manipur              |  340.032  |  425.664  |    405.6  |                      359.35  |
|      19 | Meghalaya            |   55.23   |  114.061  |    312    |                        0     |
|      20 | Mizoram              | 1234.95   |  487.445  |    430    |                        0     |
|      21 | Nagaland             |  357.846  |  565.871  |    882.2  |                      777.83  |
|      22 | Odisha               |  279.65   |  342.937  |    499    |                      558.474 |
|      23 | Rajasthan            |  453.879  |  622.421  |    585    |                      679.568 |
|      24 | Sikkim               |  145.52   |  202.154  |    394    |                      396.274 |
|      25 | Tamil Nadu           |    0      |  394.725  |    384.1  |                      409.505 |
|      26 | Telangana            |    0      |  157.083  |      0    |                        0     |
|      27 | Uttar Pradesh        |  250.956  |  386.968  |    119.81 |                      426.611 |

| 28   | Uttarakhand                  |   545.30576 |   2979.361 |   1764.10 |   694.40627 |
|------|------------------------------|-------------|------------|-----------|-------------|
| 29   | West Bengal                  |      237.66 |    657.992 |     960.6 |    800.611  |
| 30   | Puducherry                   |        0    |      0     |       0   |      0      |
| 31   | Lakshadweep                  |        0    |      6.71  |      46.3 |    136.792  |
| 32   | Delhi                        |        0    |      0     |     551.9 |      0      |
| 33   | WII, Dehradun- (Uttarakhand) |        0    |    932     |       0   |      0      |
| 33   | Tripura                      |        0    |      0     |       0   |     90.3168 |
|      | TOTAL                        |     8994.55 |  15000     |   16500   |   9305.6    |