Naseeruddin Ali takes great pride in his home village of Madanpura, nestled in the northern reaches of the state of Uttar Pradesh in India, as it is one of the few locations where the world’s tallest flying bird, the sarus crane, has chosen to settle and the only place where it is thriving.
Ali, a traditional farmer who sells his produce in the nearby town, often sees sarus cranes. He is excited when a pair suddenly appears. Flying with their necks outstretched and long legs trailing behind, these non-migratory waders cut a dramatic figure. Their heads, throats and upper necks are conspicuously crimson, set against white neck bands and dusky-grey breast and wing plumage. The duo gracefully descends on to Ali’s half-a-hectare plot, flapping their mighty 2.5m-long wings and settling on to delicate pink legs to stand nearly 2m tall.
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Many farmers in Uttar Pradesh believe these birds are indicators of a healthy agricultural ecosystem, and that their presence heralds a good harvest. “When they sweep past our fields, swaying the crops beneath them, they bestow fecundity and abundance to the land,” says Ali, expressing his gratitude.
The term ‘sarus’ comes from the Sanskrit word sarusa, which translates as ‘lake-dwelling bird’ and, sure enough, the sarus crane loves water. A resident of flooded paddy fields, wetlands and ponds, it can often be seen ducking its head in the shallows and mud, foraging for tubers with its long, pointed bill, or probing for prey such as crabs, lobsters, fish and snails. On dry land, it also uses its beak to forage for seeds and grains, insects such as grasshoppers, and frogs.
The disappearing crane
Unfortunately, the sight of this charismatic bird filling skies and fields is becoming increasingly rare. In 2000, the species was listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN, having suffered a severe population decline. The species has faced myriad challenges in recent decades, including hunting and egg collection by humans and collisions with power lines. But the most significant threat to its survival has been the widespread degradation of its wetland home, developed, drained and converted to agriculture.
Over the past 50 years, the bird – one of 15 members of the crane family – has vanished from several of its former range countries, including Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines. The global population of about 25,000–37,000 individuals is now comprised of three disjunct populations found in the Indian subcontinent (north and central India, Nepal and Pakistan); south-east Asia, where populations of a few hundred cling on in Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam; and the northern reaches of Australia, where flooded pits and troughs that provide water to cattle also support an estimated population of 5,000–10,000 birds.
The outlook for the species is bleak – yet Uttar Pradesh presents a happy conservation anomaly. Despite being the most populated state in India, it is the only location in the world where the sarus crane is flourishing. Numbers have risen steadily here in recent years, increasing from 17,329 individuals in 2021 to 19,918 in 2024. Indeed, Uttar Pradesh is now a stronghold for the sarus crane, accounting for 70–75 per cent of the species’ global population.
According to Neeraj Kumar, Uttar Pradesh’s chief conservator of forest, the birds primarily thrive in areas that retain the ideal mosaic of paddy fields and numerous small wetlands in close proximity. Many of the farmers in Uttar Pradesh are like Ali: most own small landholdings and have practised traditional farming for generations. It’s a way of life that suits the sarus perfectly.
After the monsoon season from July to September, the paddy landscapes of Uttar Pradesh remain flooded for three to four months, coinciding with the sarus crane’s breeding season. The inundated fields closely resemble the crane’s natural wetland home, and “the birds seem very happy to breed, feed and forage there,” says Kumar.
Elsewhere in India, the bird is faring less well, having disappeared from many of its former range states due to changes in agriculture. This is a bird that needs an abundance of water, particularly during the breeding season. According to crane biologist KS Gopi Sunder, changing crop patterns (in which wet paddy crops have been replaced with dry crops such as soya beans, sugar cane and mint) have significantly reduced the habitat available to the birds. In the 1980s, the sarus was common in states such as Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Maharashtra, yet sightings are now rare. Gujarat, on India’s west coast, is a notable exception: the population here has nearly tripled in the past decade, increasing from 500 birds in 2015 to 1,431 in 2023–24, and now represents the second largest in India.
“Paddy plants grow to more or less the same height as the sarus crane, so the birds can still see their surroundings, and identify food sources and potential nest predators,” says Sunder. “In contrast, the long, perennial grasses of sugar cane are taller than the birds and obstruct their view.”
Large, mechanised farms also mean that food is less available and nesting is more dangerous. There is also the additional problem of pesticides, which the birds ingest when feeding on the seeds of treated crops. This severely affects calcium metabolism in the females, resulting in very weak eggs that are easily crushed during incubation.
Cultural significance of the sarus crane
The sarus crane tends to favour human landscapes that have little by way of nature protection. In 2013, the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) launched the Sarus Crane Conservation Project (later also known as the Sarus Habitat Securement Project), in collaboration with partners including Tata Trusts and the World Land Trust, to protect the bird and its habitat across 10 districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh. To support this effort, the species was designated as the state bird of Uttar Pradesh the following year.
If the sarus was to thrive here, it was vital that the farmers were involved in the conservation effort, as not all of them shared Ali’s affection for the species, given its occasional propensity to damage crops. “It was important for farmers to be an integral part of conservation strategies to save the sarus, as it would foster a sense of belonging towards it,” says Samir Kumar Sinha, chief ecologist at WTI.
Farmers were duly advised on the ecological importance of the sarus crane and the value of minimising agrochemical use, but a particularly key strategy was to revive the bird’s rich historical and folkloric significance. The farmers were reminded, for instance, of the ancient story of Buddha as a child, then known as Prince Siddhārtha. Siddhārtha rescued a sarus crane that had been struck by an arrow fired by his cousin, Devdatta. When Siddhārtha refused to hand over the bird, the dispute escalated to the royal court. It decided in Siddhārtha’s favour, upholding the right of the saviour over that of the destroyer.
Uttar Pradesh is also home to several sacred sites associated with significant events in Buddha’s life, such as Shravasti, where he spent part of his monastic life, and Kushinagar, where he died. “The flourishing of sarus cranes in these regions signifies a unique convergence between their conservation and the legacy of Buddha,” says Arshad Hussain, field head of the project. “Today, the bird enjoys deep cultural, mythological and ecological significance in the villages of Uttar Pradesh.”
The sarus crane’s breeding habits also helped to win hearts and minds, as it is known to pair for life. If one partner dies, the other is said to pine for days and, in most cases, to remain single for the rest of its life. “This incredibly romantic and monogamous bird is a symbol for love and is the epitome of marital fidelity,” says local farmer Ravindra Kumar Tripathi, who has been monitoring the birds for a decade. “Right from building the nest to caring for the chicks and even cleaning the nests, the pair shares responsibilities.”
Friends of Sarus
Ali says most farmers now consider themselves fortunate when sarus cranes breed on their farms, often overlooking any minor damage they might cause. “They are natural pest controllers, preying on the insects and rats in our fields, and save us the cost of chemical pesticides and crop loss,” says Ali. The birds are also useful wardens, their loud, trumpeting calls alerting farmers to crop raids by blue bulls or other animals.
The local farmers who form the backbone of the WTI’s Sarus Crane Conservation Project now comprise an extensive network, and collaborate closely with a 147-strong community volunteer team called Sarus Mitra (‘friends of Sarus’). From spreading awareness of the species, monitoring them and protecting nests and eggs, to assisting in biannual counts, the villagers ensure their cranes are safeguarded.
The WTI team no longer has to invest in breeding surveys, as villagers inform them as soon as the birds begin building nests or laying eggs in their villages. Spotting a nest is easy, as the cranes use wetland vegetation to build large structures on the ground. They return to the same nest sites each year, rebuilding nests if they are not disturbed. “The farmers are the best nest protectors – they carry out a constant vigil,” says Hussain.
All these efforts are paying off. According to official figures from the WTI, the population of sarus cranes in these 10 districts is up almost fourfold, from 681 in the initial survey in 2013 to 2,679 in December 2024. It’s an impressive recovery, yet other challenges remain. “Power lines are here to stay, so our focus is on breeding success to compensate for those losses,” says Hussain. And that means securing the sarus crane’s wetland home, and allowing these iconic birds to reclaim their lost habitats.
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Top image: sarus crane in flight in Uttar Pradesh. Credit: Getty
