Pune: A female Great Indian Bustard roams alone in Nannaj sanctuary since 2015. She is the last surviving inhabitant of her large flock, a critically endangered species, which once thrived majestically in the grasslands. A 13-year-long study conducted by local birdwatcher Sarang Mhamane and field researcher of many ecological studies in grasslands Akshay Bharadwaj said that similar to her fate, the number of many large-bodied specialist birds have declined in the Nannaj grasslands.
Bharadwaj is the lead author of the study and a PhD scholar at the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland. The study was held between 2009 and 2021 in five villages — Vadala, Akolekati, Karamba, Mardi, and Narotewadi, of Nannaj in Solapur district. It documented 45 species of birds of which seven were migratory.
The EBird platform, a popular citizen science application for birdwatchers, records 199 species of birds in India — 45 of which were the ones in the study. Sarang, for whom it all started as a passion in 2003, documented the birds once in the morning and then in the evening. The data was used to calculate the reporting rate of each bird.
Data said large-bodied specialist birds such as the Great Indian Bustard (GIB) and Red-Necked Falcon had seen a large decline in numbers over the last decade. The bustard had gone down from an approximate rate of 50% to nearly 0. The said falcon started at an approximate rate of 23% and dipped to 0.
1%. Other grassland/open-habitat species, like Grey Shrik.