The Gujarat state government is setting up a breeding centre for great Indian bustards (GIB) at Naliya in Kutch. This will be the first breeding centre in the Gujarat for the great Indian bustards.
Great Indian bustards are currently on the Red List of threatened species maintained by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and UAE is collaborating on this breeding centre. United Arab Emirates (UAE) is world known for bustard conservation and it has brought back the houbara bustard from the brink of extinction with successful breeding centres.
According to IUCN, there are less than 200 GIB left in India and in Gujarat only 20 are left.
In Gujarat, GIB are found only in Kutch. They have disappeared from Haryana, Punjab, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, while there are still some in Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Rajasthan.