We can’t wait for the great Indian bustard to grow and survive like a pigeon in a human-dominated world
We can’t wait for the great Indian bustard to grow and survive like a pigeon in a human-dominated world
wooAre you at fault, us or the bird?
My daughter angrily asked, “Mom, how do I get rid of the pigeon nest outside my bedroom? There’s always a lump of egg or brown poop and a lot of droppings.” Her initial fascination and posting of progress pictures of pigeons in our family WhatsApp group has turned into despair. She was worried whether her baby’s wheezing was triggered by bird droppings.
As much as she wanted to get rid of the nest, it was never empty! Eggs are laid as soon as a set of molluscs emerges. My explanation of pigeons’ adaptation to coexistence with humans and to breed repeatedly when food is plentiful does not address their concern. I told him to keep a close watch and remove the nest as soon as the last chick comes out and close the comfortable gap between the AC unit and the wall. I dressed her up with a happy emoji.
horrific loss
The next WhatsApp message was from an environmental group planning to build a monument to a bird, the great Indian bustard ( ardiotis nigrispsWhich collided with a high-tension power line in Jaisalmer and died. The death dealt yet another blow to the rapidly declining numbers of Rajasthan’s state bird. The bustard (called bast-uhad and known locally as Godavan) is unique to India and was a contender for the title of national bird. It is believed that the possibility of misspelling as a slang caused the bird to lose the title and acquire the abbreviation GIB. The origin of the name bustard is derived from the Anglo-Norman French mixture of Old French words. bistarde And ostardederived from latin words avis tardaWhich means “slow bird”.
In addition to the problems posed by its name, the GIB has some evolutionary (dis)advantages. The bird of the savannah is designed for running and is endowed with strong legs and three forward pointed toes. The absence of the hind toe makes it impossible to sit. This land bird is a slow breeder, laying mostly a single egg on the ground and it takes about a month to hatch. Such a breeding pattern is no longer safe. Over the years, the bird has been forced to abandon its vast territory that stretches from Tamil Nadu to Punjab and Odisha to Rajasthan. As the grasslands were converted into barren land for agriculture, farming, industry etc., the GIB has been shifted to the western corner of India. Here too, its precious eggs are more likely to be trampled on by cattle or eaten by dogs. Over the past 50 years, the population of the GIB has fallen from 1,200 to 120. Birds flying over unobstructed areas of grasslands and bushes are not designed to fly between windmills and power lines. Flying it never needed to look ahead; Instead it was useful to look down any prey. But now this habit of flying often leads to death by collision. The erecting of a memorial to the dead gib is an attempt to raise awareness of the plight of the bird even in its last refuge on earth.
The paradox of permanently breeding pigeons adapted to human presence and the near-extinction Great Indian Bustard represent two extremes of the human-bird relationship. If the critically endangered gib goes extinct, will we blame the bird for not adapting to a human-dominated world and absolve ourselves of all guilt? Or should we take responsibility and give the bird its rightful place on earth? If we choose the second option, there is an urgent need to reconsider our actions and reorganize them in order to coexist with the bird. We can’t wait for GIB to grow and survive like a pigeon. Time is Running Out.
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