A dry grassland sanctuary in Andhra Pradesh created to protect the critically endangered great Indian bustard.
Rollapadu Wildlife Sanctuary
Rollapadu Wildlife Sanctuary is a small protected area in the Nandyal district of Andhra Pradesh, in southern India, situated close to the state's border with Karnataka. Created in 1988, the sanctuary exists primarily to safeguard the great Indian bustard and the lesser florican, two of South Asia's most threatened grassland birds, and it remains the only known habitat for the bustard within Andhra Pradesh.
The landscape is overwhelmingly a dry, undulating semi-arid plain with hot weather, erratic rainfall, and open stretches of grassland interspersed with patches of dry forest and spiny shrubs. Despite its modest size, the sanctuary supports an unusually diverse mix of mammals, reptiles, and birds, including blackbuck, sloth bear, jungle cat, and over 130 recorded bird species that use the surrounding reservoir as a wintering ground.
In broader conservation terms, Rollapadu is a study in both the promise and the difficulty of protecting India's grasslands. Its bustard population has fallen sharply in recent years, illustrating the pressures that grazing, agricultural expansion, hydrological change, and shifts in the grassland ecosystem place on species that depend on open, undisturbed habitat.
