Supreme Court Ruling on Great Indian Bustard Tested Climate and Biodiversity Balance

A March 2024 Supreme Court judgment in MK Ranjitsinh v Union of India placed the critically endangered Great Indian Bustard — with only 50 to 249 mature individuals estimated to survive — at the centre of a constitutional debate over whether solar energy infrastructure and wildlife conservation can co-exist in Rajasthan. The ruling required power lines in the species' range to be placed underground, creating a precedent for judicial balancing of renewable energy expansion and biodiversity protection.

The three-judge bench comprising then Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra delivered the judgment in March 2024 on a petition challenging overhead power transmission lines in the GIB's range areas. The court had previously ordered in 2021 that electricity lines be placed underground in GIB habitats after documented evidence that the birds — which have poor frontal vision — were dying in collisions with overhead cables. The 2024 ruling confirmed and refined this direction while acknowledging the solar energy development plans for the region.

The GIB case crystallises a tension present across India's renewable energy expansion programme, where large solar and wind installations are being built in arid and semi-arid regions that simultaneously serve as habitat for critically endangered species and migratory birds. The International Union for Conservation of Nature's estimate of only 50 to 249 mature GIB individuals in the wild — almost entirely in Rajasthan — makes the stakes extremely high, as any infrastructure-related mortality threatens the species' long-term viability.

The judgment has broader implications for how India balances its 2030 renewable energy targets with biodiversity commitments under the Kunming-Montreal framework. Legal scholars analysing the ruling argue that the court's approach — requiring infrastructure adaptation rather than choosing between development and conservation — offers a model for resolving similar conflicts in other ecologically sensitive zones. However, implementing underground cabling at the scale required across Rajasthan's vast GIB range remains a significant engineering and financial challenge.

Key figure — 50 to 249 mature Great Indian Bustard individuals estimated in the wild