‘Why not Project Great Indian Bustard like Project Tiger’ asks SC on saving bird species

The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked Attorney General R Venkataramani to check with the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest, about the possibility of launching a ‘project Great Indian Bustard (GIB)’, on the lines of ‘Project Tiger’.

Senior advocate Shyam Divan, representing PIL petitioner retired IAS officer M K Ranjitsinh, contended before a bench led by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud that despite directions from the apex court for all overhead power lines to be undergrounded within a year, it has not been done, and as a consequence some more GIBs have died due to electrocution, and their deaths have reached a total of seven this year.

He said under-grounding of power cables has started in Gujarat, which is a positive development, however the same is not happening in Rajasthan.

Divan also said that diverters have to be installed and also maintained, as they may fall off.

The Centre led by the AG and Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati contended that the composition of the committee should be modified to include domain experts-- additional secretary of renewable energy and the chief operating officer of Central Transmission Utility of India.

The bench, however, said right now the composition of the committee should not be tinkered with.

The court sought reports from the chief secretaries of Rajasthan and Gujarat in six weeks on installation of bird diverters in priority areas. It also sought examination of the total length of transmission lines, where electrical wires would have to go under-ground to ensure the birds do not die of electrocution.

Concluding the hearing in the matter, the bench told the Centre’s counsel to check with the ministry of forest and environment, whether it was possible to have a 'Project Great Indian Bustard', on the same lines of the 'Project Tiger'.

The bench, also comprising justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, said, “We had that Project Tiger, is it not possible to have some mechanism to bring focus on like having ‘Project Great Indian Bustard”.

The top court was hearing a PIL seeking several directions to save the GIB. It had set up a three-member committee to assess the feasibility of laying high-voltage underground power cables. The committee consisted of scientists Rahul Rawat, Sutirtha Dutta, and Devesh Gadhavi, deputy director of Corbett Foundation. The GIB is considered the country's most critically endangered bird species, which is found in Gujarat and Rajasthan.