Rohit Jha

The Bengal Florican Houbaropsis bengalensis (Gmelin 1789) is a Critically Endangered species, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). It is listed under Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, and has been a priority species for conservation in the Wildlife Action Plan (2002-2016) prepared by the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF). A guideline document to frame state-specific Recovery Plans has also been developed by the MoEF for the Bengal Florican as well as for the other two resident bustard species (Great Indian Bustard Ardeotis nigriceps and Lesser Florican Sypheotides indicus) found in India. Deploying satellite transmitters on Bengal Floricans at Pilibhit (three birds) and Dudhwa (one bird) reserves has given us specific information about their post-breeding movements. The transmitter of one bird at Pilibhit stopped working after three months, but the transmitters on the other three birds has given and continue to give us insightful information for almost three years. We found that by July-August the birds moved out from their breeding sites (which happen to be inside Pilibhit and Dudhwa reserves), approximately 15-50 km, into floodplain-agriscape areas along rivers. These areas are characterised by a mosaic of unmanaged grasslands and relatively lower-intensity agriculture with low human population densities and minimum infrastructure, generally outside the territorial jurisdiction of the Forest Department. The birds spend about six to eight months in such areas showing a wide breadth of local movements, perhaps due to specific anthropogenic disturbance events (e.g. harvesting or sowing of crops, harrowing the field, burning crop stubble). Hence, for up to eight months in a year, birds are not in protected grasslands of PAs, and may thus potentially be more prone to the dangers of hunting and trapping. Therefore, for the protection of Bengal Florican, we must look at the larger landscape beyond officially protected areas and Reserved Forests (RFs). The Species Recovery Plan for the Bengal Florican in Uttar Pradesh may keep this larger heterogeneous landscape in mind and devise appropriate strategies based on recommendations of this report. We also conducted a pilot project to manipulate the vegetation structure at a grassland territory of a male bird in Dudhwa National Park to assess whether it stayed back inside the reserve if it were provided a mosaic of short and tall grass areas post the breeding season. Perhaps our experiment was done a little late and/or on a smaller scale, as the bird moved out of the reserve eventually, although it tended to use open patches created by vegetation trimming more than usual. We suggest that such experiments be repeated at more than one site and on a larger scale to assess the efficacy of such an interventionist approach. Since the results presented here are largely based on location data obtained from only three tagged birds, we recommend that more birds of both sexes be tagged in Uttar Pradesh, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh to fully understand the landscape level ecological requirements of the Bengal Florican. At present, much of the grassland management is done keeping in mind the requirements of large mega-vertebrates such as the Rhino, Swamp Deer, Asian Elephant, Tiger and Wild Buffalo. Sometimes grassland areas are burnt during the breeding season of the Bengal Florican and other grassland avian species. We strongly recommend long-term studies on the impact of annual grassland burning at Dudhwa, Manas, Kaziranga, D’Ering, Orang and other reserves/areas on flora and fauna in order to help devise scientific grassland management protocols that take care of the needs of all grassland-dependent species, especially that of grassland obligatory avian species.