In Pakistan’s Cholistan desert, two Great Indian Bustards (GIBs) were shot down by the by the hunters which includes a retired Major of the Pakistan Army.
- The GIB is the State bird of Rajasthan, is considered India’s most critically endangered bird.
- The grassland habitat with grass cover in the Cholistan desert, where the Great Indian Bustards were foraging, is similar to the habitat in Rajasthan’s Desert National Park (DNP), where the GIB’s last remnant wild population is found.
- The Desert National Park, situated near the towns of Jaisalmer and Barmer, forms a part of the mighty Thar desert.
- The Great Indian Bustards population of fewer than 100 in Rajasthan accounts for 95% of its total world population.
- The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), which categorised the GIBs as “endangered” in 1994, was forced to upgrade the species to the status of “critically endangered” in 2011 because of continued threats faced in the survival of these large birds.
- As Rajasthan shares the international border with Pakistan’s Sindh and Punjab provinces, it is suspected that Indian-bred Great Indian Bustards will fly across to Pakistan’s desert and will be easy prey for the gun-toting poachers there.
- The Cholistan desert, or Rohi, is the western part of the Thar desert of the sub-continent which lies in modern Pakistan. There is archaeological evidence that this area was once watered by the Hakra river and was home to an Indus Valley culture based on agriculture.
(Source: The Hindu and UNESCO)
