- The Great Indian Bustard, one of the heaviest flying birds, can weigh up to 15 kg and grow up to one meter in height.
- It is considered the flagship grassland species, representing the health of the grassland ecology.
- For a long, conservationists have been demanding to secure this population, warning that the bird might get extinct in the coming decades.
- It would become the first mega species to disappear from India after Cheetah in recent times.
- Till the 1980s, about 1,500-2,000 Great Indian Bustards were spread throughout the western half of India, spanning eleven states.
- However, with rampant hunting and declining grasslands, their population dwindled.
- In July 2011, the bird was categorized as “critically endangered” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).