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In 1969, when the Great Indian Bustard – one of the heaviest flying birds on Earth – lost the “national bird” race to the peacock, perhaps no one foresaw that this was not merely a loss of honour, but a premonition of the species’ descent into the abyss. More than half a century later, today, this bird – revered as the state bird of Rajasthan under the name “Godawan,” and known in Kashmir as “Ghorad” – is being erased from the map of the Indian subcontinent at a terrifying pace.
According to the latest official assessment released by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) in July 2026, the wild population of the Great Indian Bustard is stabilised at between 110 and 150 individuals. More recent survey estimates paint an even grimmer picture – barely 130 birds remain. Once distributed across 11 Indian states, its range has now shrunk to a handful of grassy patches in Rajasthan’s Thar Desert, and scattered fragments in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh.
Jammu & Kashmir: The Silent Exit of a Species
For Jammu and Kashmir, the disappearance of the Great Indian Bustard is an ecological tragedy that has gone largely unnoticed. Historical records clearly show that this bird, which favours short-grass plains, desert flats, and semi-arid tracts, once ranged widely across 16 Indian states – including Jammu and Kashmir. From Gujarat to Madhya Pradesh, from Karnataka to Andhra Pradesh, and from western Rajasthan to Jammu and Kashmir, the Great Indian Bustard was the undisputed “monarch” of the subcontinent’s arid grasslands.
Today, however, in Jammu and Kashmir, the species is functionally extinct. The traces once visible in the Dachigam area near Srinagar are now nothing more than dusty historical footnotes. From flourishing in 16 states to surviving now only in a few isolated populations in Rajasthan and Gujarat, the Great Indian Bustard has lost 90% of its historical habitat. The grasslands of Jammu and Kashmir have lost their most magnificent resident.
Threats: More Than Just “Losing to the Peacock”
The bustard’s extinction crisis is not the result of any single factor, but a cascade of multiple deadly blows.
Habitat loss is the most fundamental threat. With the expansion of agriculture, infrastructure, and human settlements, this sensitive bird – which requires open, flat, undisturbed grasslands – has lost the home it depends on. In Rajasthan, surveys show that the bird now occurs in only 16% of its potential habitat.
High-voltage power lines have emerged as the most lethal “killer” in recent years. This giant bird – standing four feet tall, with a wingspan of nearly two metres and weighing up to 15–18 kilograms – has eyes positioned on the sides of its head, giving it extremely poor forward vision. It cannot effectively avoid transmission lines that cut across its flight paths, and often collides directly with them, dying on the spot. The Wildlife Institute of India estimates that the death of just 4 to 5 birds per year from electrocution is enough to push the species to extinction within two decades. Ironically, these transmission lines serve India’s rapidly expanding renewable energy infrastructure. In Gujarat’s Abdasa region in Kutch, the flat, open terrain is both ideal bustard habitat and one of India’s most productive wind corridors – hundreds of wind turbines and hundreds of kilometres of transmission lines have turned this last refuge into a death trap.
Extremely low reproductive rates compound the crisis. The bird typically lays only one egg per year, and even that sole offspring often falls prey to predators such as feral dogs.
The Unique Predicament of Jammu & Kashmir
Though the Great Indian Bustard has vanished from Jammu and Kashmir, the ecological challenges facing this region bear a striking resemblance to the threats that doomed the bird. The grasslands and semi-arid ecosystems of Jammu and Kashmir similarly suffer from habitat fragmentation, infrastructure expansion, and anthropogenic pressure. The disappearance of the Great Indian Bustard serves as a warning signal – a red flag for the deteriorating health of this entire ecosystem.
Furthermore, the long-standing political instability and border tensions in Jammu and Kashmir pose additional obstacles to biodiversity conservation. When basic stability in a region cannot be guaranteed, wildlife protection is all too often relegated to a lower priority.
Conservation Efforts and Glimmers of Hope
Faced with this extinction crisis, the Indian government and various states have not remained idle. The Great Indian Bustard is listed under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, affording it the highest level of legal protection. In 2016, the government launched the “Habitat Improvement and Conservation Breeding of the Great Indian Bustard” recovery programme. Two conservation breeding centres – at Sam and Ramdevra in Rajasthan’s Jaisalmer district – have successfully reared 82 bustards.
In March 2026, in Kutch, Gujarat, a “Jumpstart” method led to the birth of a chick for the first time in a decade – though that chick disappeared a month later, presumably taken by a predator.
India’s Supreme Court has also stepped in, ordering in December 2024 that priority areas for the bustard be protected, that several kilometres of overhead lines be rerouted in critical zones, and that specific stretches of cables be buried underground.
The Extinction of a Species, the Alarm Bell for a Region
The disappearance of the Great Indian Bustard from Jammu and Kashmir is not merely a geographical contraction of one species’ range. It is an elegy for an ecosystem, a microcosm of biodiversity loss, and a profound challenge to our models of development.
When a species that once graced the grasslands of Jammu and Kashmir now survives only in a few fenced enclosures in Rajasthan; when the Kashmiri name “Ghorad” slowly fades from local memory – what we lose is not just a bird, but a part of the ecological integrity of that land.
The Great Indian Bustard may have lost the “national bird” contest, but humanity cannot afford to lose the battle to save it. For Jammu and Kashmir, the departure of this bustard should stand as an eternal reminder: development must not come at the cost of permanent ecological ruin. Otherwise, the next species to disappear from these lands may be one whose value we have not yet even recognised.
In the silence left by the Great Indian Bustard’s vanishing from Jammu and Kashmir, we hear not only a requiem for a species, but also a clarion call about the relationship between humankind and nature.