Four Great Indian Bustard chicks to be moved from Rajasthan to Gujarat

Four Great Indian Bustard chicks, two males and two females, are to be brought to Gujarat from Rajasthan’s breeding programme, The Times of India reported on 9 November.

The move comes months after a male chick hatched in Kutch. The Great Indian Bustard is one of the world’s most endangered birds. It is listed as Critically Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Why it matters

Gujarat’s wild population had shrunk to three females in the grasslands of Kutch, with no male to breed with. In March 2026, a chick hatched in Kutch for the first time in about a decade. Forest officials had carried a fertilised egg about 770 km by road from a breeding centre in Rajasthan in a portable incubator, a 19-hour journey, and placed it under a wild female. The method is known as “jumpstart”.

A second chick hatched the same way on 21 May and survived its first, most risky 40 days, officials said in July.

The breeding programme

Rajasthan runs breeding centres at Sam and Ramdevra, near Jaisalmer, where 98 chicks had been born in captivity by July, according to officials. The project is moving towards releasing birds into the wild.

The report did not say when the four chicks would arrive.