Rajasthan’s Desert Communities Are Saving Godawan, the Great Indian Bustard From the Edge of Extinction — Here’s How |
This article is in partnership with Diageo India
Rounds of mithaimake their way through an excited gathering in Jaisalmer’s Salkha village; the air is thick with celebration, the kind that usually follows the arrival of a newborn. Well, there has been a birth in the village, not a baby, but a creature the residents cherish just as much. It is the Godawan, the Great Indian Bustard.
“The bird is like one of our own; an egg hatching and a chick being added to its population is as good a reason to celebrate as any,” insists Kedar Shrimal, the president of the Gramodaya Samajik Sansthan, a Rajasthan-based NGO that, since 2022, has dedicated its efforts to the conservation of the ‘critically endangered’ Godawan, the Great Indian Bustard. Any uptick in its numbers sends ripples of happiness across the teams involved in the bird’s conservation: the locals, the Forest Department, the Wildlife Institute of India, and Diageo India.
But even as statistics mirror the success of the conservation efforts — a swell in the bird’s population from 96 (when the project was started in 2022) to 173 (the latest 2025 tally) — also noteworthy is the mindset shift emerging within the communities, Kishan Singh, sarpanchof Salkha village, Jaisalmer, points out. “Earlier, there wasn’t too much awareness about the Godawan, the Great Indian Bustard, despite it being our state bird,” he says. He attributes the growing ecological literacy around the bird to the conservation programme, which mobilises youth volunteers to blow the whistle on hunting and poaching, and includes awareness sessions across schools.
But there’s miles to go, he admits.
Fun fact: In 1963, Godawan, the Great Indian Bustard, was a strong contender for the title of India’s national bird, but the peafowl (Pavo cristatus) claimed the distinction because no one wanted to run the risk of the Godawan, the Great Indian Bustard, being misspelt. If not for that, the black crowned bird, with its black, brown, and grey flecked wings, would have secured the title, something ornithologist Salim Ali tried hard to make happen.
His argument was cogent: the criterion for choosing a national bird was to “focus interest........