As I began writing this essay, an opinion piece titled “A Giant Poor Sighted Bird Stands in the Way of India’s Green Goals” from Bloomberg Green pinged my social media radar.1 The article discusses the impact of a recent Supreme Court of India ruling asking for “transmission lines in a large swathe of the region to go underground” on India’s renewable energy targets. The Court’s ruling was in response to a petition to save the Great Indian Bustard, an endangered grassland bird, from “certain extinction” from mortalities caused by flying into power lines. The court ordered the transmission companies to avoid towers in grasslands and instead run the transmission lines under the ground.
After cautioning readers to be aware before taking sides, as the “issue is more nuanced than a straightforward clash pitting industry against nature,” the article’s author argues that “[t]he effort to save the bustard holds risks for what is arguably an even larger environmental cause: It could set back India’s climate goals, which depend heavily on the availability of wasteland like the bustard’s domain for putting up solar panels and wind turbines.” That is a pretty heavy burden to place on the poor bustard’s shoulders.
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