A month-old chick of the Great Indian Bustard, hatched in the wild in Gujarat's Kutch through a first-of-its-kind inter-state egg transfer, has gone missing since April 18.
Forest officials are not ruling out predation and experts are questioning whether adequate habitat safeguards were in place for its survival.
The Great Indian Bustard, the state bird of Rajasthan, is among the heaviest flying birds of Indian grasslands, standing about one metre tall.
Once distributed across 11 states, the national population has fallen from an estimated 1,260 birds in 1969 to possibly fewer than 150 individuals today.
Wildlife experts said several preconditions were absent on the ground when the operation was conducted, including grass management, vegetation, and predator-proof fencing.
The Supreme Court had directed that conservation measures be implemented alongside renewable energy expansion through site-specific, expert-led recommendations.
The Kutch Bustard Sanctuary is one of the two notified protected areas for the species in Gujarat, while the actual habitat extends across a larger grassland landscape outside formal protection.
Efforts to recover the GIB population in Kutch through the jumpstart method will continue, with two female GIBs tagged to track nests and their future eggs used for similar interventions.
