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The Great Indian Bustard lost India’s national bird race. It is now close to extinction

The Great Indian Bustard’s habitat is highly important to India’s renewable energy aspirations. It has created one of the most high-voltage clashes between conservationists and environmentalists.

The grassy desert landscape of the Jaisalmer region is otherworldly. Big skies encase lazily outstretched sands. From these rise pale, creamy-yellow grasses, whose thick blades taunt urban lawns. In between these are gnarled Khejri trees.

You can sit for hours with binoculars, as your eyes adapt to the camouflaged movements in this deceptively gaunt landscape. With some luck, an excellent guide, and friends who know the landscape like the back of their hand, you might see the Great Indian Bustard (GIB), Ardeotis nigriceps. The bird sports a thick line of black on its head, giving it the ‘nigriceps’ moniker. With a pale white head and neck, and an indescribable tawny brown body, it could blend with the background but for its size. The male can weigh 15 kg, almost as much as a golden jackal. Despite its weight, the bird can still fly.

I recall the hours spent watching this bird over the years as melancholically tender. I was not just observing one of the most critically endangered birds in India; I was also witnessing the fate of a step-bird.

On 1 February 1963, India adopted the Indian Peafowl, popularly called the peacock, as its national bird. The GIB, a contender for the same title, has lived in decline ever since, a step-bird, as it were.

A widely held belief is that the GIB faced this condemnatory rejection not only because the peafowl is more colourful and dramatic-looking, and more widely found, but........

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