> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.earthtoseanews.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Two bustards walk out into the Thar Desert, and a ten year wait is over - URL: https://www.earthtoseanews.com/bustards-fly/ - Published: 2026-10-13T07:31:55.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-13T07:34:57.000Z - Description: On a Sunday morning in Rajasthan's Thar Desert, two young male Great Indian Bustards, hatched and raised by people, walked out of a soft release pen in Desert National Park and into the wild. Ten years of patient work came down to those first free steps, with 97 more birds growing up behind them. - Author: Nicole McMahon - Tags: Wildlife, Global Good News, All stories Great Indian Bustards are tall, stately birds of open grassland, standing about a metre high, and by the most recent counts fewer than 150 remain in the wild, nearly all of them in the Thar Desert of Rajasthan. Ten years ago, with numbers that low, India began something no one had tried with this species: collecting eggs from wild nests, hatching them in incubators and raising the chicks at two breeding centres, Sam and Ramdevra, in Jaisalmer district. On Sunday 4 October 2026, during India's Wildlife Week, that long effort reached the moment it was built for. Two captive bred males were let out of a soft release pen at Sam in Desert National Park and walked into the wild, with only a handful of people present so the birds would not be disturbed. Rajasthan's state bird was back where it belongs. Behind those two, the numbers tell the story of a decade. Sam and Ramdevra together now hold 97 bustards, 40 of them hatched from eggs gathered in the wild and 57 bred at the centres. Captive pairs produced 24 live chicks in 2025 and 29 this year. Eleven birds have been chosen for release, and the pair that walked out on Sunday were the first of them. Behind the programme stand India's Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, the Rajasthan Forest Department and the Wildlife Institute of India, with technical help from the International Fund for Houbara Conservation in Abu Dhabi. Read the full story: [Union Environment Minister releases two male Great Indian Bustards into the wild at Desert National Park, Jaisalmer, Press Information Bureau, Government of India](https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2318842). What waits for the birds inside the park is as much the story as the release itself. Across roughly 200 square kilometres of Desert National Park, the Rajasthan Forest Department has fenced grassland enclosures, the very places that years of tracking by the institute's scientists showed to be the bustards' favourite breeding ground. At Ramdevra, a new flight aviary opened the day before the release, 160 metres long, 64 metres wide and 14 metres high, built without a single pillar so young birds can stretch their wings, build flight muscle and learn to behave like wild bustards before they go. One quiet experiment, called jumpstart, has placed eggs laid at the centres into wild nests, and the wild mothers accepted them and hatched six chicks in Rajasthan and two in Gujarat. Every lesson from this first release will shape the next ones. Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav, who was at Sam that morning, wrote afterwards that he "saw Dr Sutirtha Dutta, Dr Tushna Karkariya, and Hrishika Sharma got all emotional" as the birds went. All three are part of the Wildlife Institute of India team that has lived with these birds for years. "One can only imagine how some dedicate their entire lives to selfless causes," he wrote. "No words of praise are enough for them and the entire team that has made it possible." Nine more birds are ready, and somewhere in the Thar this week two bustards are finding their own way across the grass. ### Sources and links Our short take: the full story is in two Press Information Bureau releases from India's Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (3 and 4 October 2026), with News On AIR (4 October 2026), a PTI report in the Deccan Chronicle (4 October 2026) and the minister's words about the scientists as reported by IANS in Telangana Today (4 October 2026). - [Union Environment Minister releases two male Great Indian Bustards into the wild at Desert National Park, Jaisalmer, Press Information Bureau, Government of India (4 October 2026)](https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2318842) Release day at Sam, 97 birds, 40 and 57, 86 and 11, 24 and 29 chicks, jumpstart, 200 sq km, the transition line, the minister's post. - [In culmination of 10 years of dedicated efforts, Union Environment Minister and CM (Rajasthan) initiate the process for release of captive bred Great Indian Bustards into the Wild at Desert National Park, Press Information Bureau, Government of India (3 October 2026)](https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2318629) Wildlife Week, the soft release facility, the Rewilding Aviary at Ramdevra and its size, limited presence at the release, state bird, Houbara fund. - [Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav releases two male Great Indian Bustards into wild, News On AIR](https://newsonair.gov.in/environment-minister-bhupender-yadav-releases-two-male-great-indian-bustards-into-wild/) India's public broadcaster, the morning report from Sam. - [Bhupender Yadav Initiates Great Indian Bustards' Release Into Wild, PTI, Deccan Chronicle](https://www.deccanchronicle.com/lifestyle/environment/bhupender-yadav-initiates-process-for-great-indian-bustards-release-into-wild-1993042) PTI's numbers and the soft release facility. - [No words of praise enough for them: Environment Minister extols scientists after Great Indian Bustards release, IANS, Telangana Today](https://telanganatoday.com/no-words-of-praise-enough-for-them-environment-minister-extols-scientists-after-great-indian-bustards-release) The minister's post naming Dr Dutta, Dr Karkariya and Hrishika Sharma, and his two quotes. - [Captive-raised chicks offer hope for extremely rare great Indian bustard, by Shreya Dasgupta, Mongabay (10 April 2025)](https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/04/captive-raised-chicks-offer-hope-for-extremely-rare-great-indian-bustard/) Fewer than 150 in the wild; Dr Dutta as senior scientist at WII. - [Wildlife Institute of India](https://wii.gov.in/) The institute that runs the Bustard Recovery Programme. - [Dr Sutirtha Dutta, Wildlife Institute of India](https://www.wii.gov.in/faculty/sutirtha-dutta) His faculty page, Scientist E and Head. - [Rajasthan Forest Department](https://forest.rajasthan.gov.in/) The department that built the enclosures and the aviary. - [International Fund for Houbara Conservation](https://houbarafund.gov.ae/) Abu Dhabi, technical partner.