The cheep of five freshly hatched Great Indian Bustard (GIB) chicks at a hatchery in Rajasthan sounds like hope for the state's conservationists trying hard to save the near-extinct bird species. The five chicks were born in Sum, a village in Jaisalmer known for its camel safaris and sand dunes. The GIB is locally known as Godavan. Fewer than 150 are thought to survive in the wild across the country.

The chicks are the first GIB births in captivity, through artificial hatching over the past month. The chicks were born from seven eggs that wildlife officials collected from the expansive Desert National Park in Jaisalmer. More births may follow as a total of 10 eggs are to be collected as part of the breeding programme. Conservationists hope the GIB chicks will eventually become fully grown adults and survive in the wild.

GIB eggs being processed for incubation at the Center in Jaisalmer by WII Scientists.

The species recovery programme is part of the Rajasthan government's plan to steadily build up a population of 25 bustards in captivity and release them in the wild. The GIB project is a joint effort of the Rajasthan wildlife department, Dehradun's Wildlife Institute of India (WII), the Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change and the Abu Dhabi-based International Fund for Houbara Conservation (IFHC). IFHC has successfully bred and released the Houbara, a close cousin of the GIB, in the wild in Pakistan.

The story of the bustard, a bird that can grow to around a metre high, is a tragic one. In Pakistan, the Houbara Bustard has been hunted to near-extinction. In India, the GIB was once abundant across the Deccan plateau. It's now staring at extinction primarily because of loss of habitat. Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh are left with only seven and two female birds, laying infertile eggs. Rajasthan is perhaps where the last of the battles to save the GIB is being fought.

M.K. Ranjitsinh, former forest and wildlife secretary of Madhya Pradesh, lists power lines, solar parks, and wind energy mills criss-crossing the GIB's natural habitats as reasons for the bird's depleting population. The birds have poor frontal vision and are unable to see power lines stretched across their flight paths, thus crashing into them. The males, who fly in search of females to mate, are especially vulnerable. The last male GIB in Gujarat died after hitting a power line, as did two other tagged birds. The growing fields of solar panels have eaten into the habitat where the bustards forage and lay eggs. Birds that fly into neighboring Pakistan are often killed by hunters there. Back home, feral dogs and pigs gorge on GIB eggs and chicks. Compounding this is the fact that the solitary bird has a very poor reproduction rate-it lays one egg in a year of good monsoon (rains breed enough insects for parents to feed the chick).

Experts involved in the GIB captive-breeding project in Jaisalmer are delighted by the new births. They hope to rear the birds away from human danger and release them in the wild. This effort involves experts spotting a female GIB, tracking it through the Desert National Park and waiting for the bird to lay eggs, which are quickly collected. The bird starts breeding only at the age of three. Trackers in Jaisalmer shift eggs to the temporary hatchery near Sum. Arindam Tomar, Rajasthan additional Principal Chief Conservator and Chief Wildlife Warden of Rajasthan, says a population will be maintained in captivity as an insurance against extinction in the wild and the GIB chicks would be subsequently released in the wild after the threats to their survival are mitigated.

A GIB fitted with a satellite transmitter to study its movement and suggest subsequent mitigation of powerlines for its conservation.

It was only in 2013 that the WII published the first document that comprehensively outlined the strategy to conserve GIBs-titled 'Resident Bustards Recovery Programme'. In 2016, the Union environment ministry mandated WII to start a breeding programme as insurance against extinction of the bustard. WII got IFHC directors Mohammed Ahmed Al Bowardi and Majid Ali Al Mansouri to depute their scientists managing the Houbara and Arabian Bustard breeding programmes to assist Indian scientists in setting up an incubation and rearing centre for GIB. The IFHC experts trained the Indian counterparts on the techniques of bustard breeding and husbandry, besides stationing two scientists at the Sum hatchery.

There is, however, apprehension about the success rate of the breeding programme as bustards born in captivity and released in the wild often die quickly. Ranjitsinh calls the captive-breeding effort sort of a 'last resort'. "It saves the species from becoming extinct and gives a chance to reintroduce it in nature," he says. It is expected that a permanent hatchery will be ready at Sorsan in Kota in two years, a place considered idle. The first choice to have such a hatchery was in Kutch in Gujarat, but Rajasthan wasn't agreeable to letting the GIB eggs move to another state. Now, Gujarat is offering its seven GIB females to Rajasthan to have the area free of endangered species-related restrictions, the way Madhya Pradesh does not want Karera, once a GIB sanctuary, to be rehabilitated with the birds born in captivity.

For bustards to survive into the next generation, it is important that measures are taken in the 1,000-3,000 sq km of agro-pastoral landscape in their habitats in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh to shift power lines to under the ground and fit the remaining overhead lines with bird-diverting devices. These devices help reduce collisions substantially by making power lines more visible to flying birds from a distance. Experts say the authorities must also control feral dog populations in these areas and stop poaching. It's a tough battle and the odds are heavily loaded against the Bustard.

READ | Govt to invest Rs 33 crore to save 130 great Indian bustards left in the country

WATCH | Good news: Black stork rescued by wildlife experts