When we think about wildlife conservation in India, we imagine dense forests echoing with tiger calls, mangrove swamps sheltering crocodiles, or coral reefs teeming with marine life. Rarely do we picture open grasslands stretching endlessly under a harsh sun.
To many people, grasslands appear as empty, dry, and flat spaces waiting to be planted over, fenced, urbanised, or converted into farmland. For decades, they have even been labelled as ‘wastelands’ in policy discussions.
Not every thriving ecosystem is a dense forest — healthy grasslands, scrublands, and rocky outcrops are equally important components of India’s natural heritage. [Photo © Wildlife SOS/ Akash Dolas]
However, India’s grasslands are anything but empty. They are living ecosystems that quietly support some of the country’s most remarkable wildlife. Ranging from the elusive Indian wolf and caracal to herds of blackbuck and critically endangered birds like the great Indian bustard. These are the landscapes shaped by wind, grazing, fire, migration, and survival. And today, they’re disappearing faster than most people realise.
The Ecosystem Nobody Notices
India’s grasslands exist in many forms across the country: the semi-arid grasslands of Rajasthan, the savannah-like Deccan Plateau scrublands, the Terai floodplains in the north, and the Banni grasslands of Gujarat. However, unlike forests, grasslands don’t tower dramatically over the landscape. There are no thick canopies, waterfalls or streams to gaze at. Their beauty is more subtle, which is found in swaying grasses, hidden burrows in the ground, sudden movements in the grasses, and skies alive with the raptors.
Blackbucks are among India’s most iconic grassland species, relying on open landscapes where their keen eyesight and remarkable speed help them evade predators. [Photo © Wildlife SOS/ Shresatha Pachori]
Yet, despite supporting an astonishing diversity of life, these habitats have historically received far less protection than forests. In many cases, grasslands have been treated as ‘degraded forests’ rather than ecosystems in their own right. And according to ecological studies, many grassland-dependent mammals and birds, including blackbuck, floricans, and the great Indian bustard, now face severe population declines because of habitat loss and fragmentation.
A Home for Species Found Almost Nowhere Else
Grasslands support species that simply cannot survive inside dense forests. The Indian wolf relies on open terrain to hunt and move across large distances. Blackbucks depend on unobstructed visibility to detect predators. Raptors use thermal air currents rising above grasslands to soar effortlessly overhead.
Once widespread across the Indian subcontinent, the great Indian bustard now survives in fragmented grassland habitats and is categorised as Critically Endangered under the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. [Photo (c) Wikimedia Commons]
And then there is the great Indian bustard, which is one of the heaviest flying birds in the world and among India’s most critically endangered species. Once found across large parts of the Indian subcontinent, the Great Indian Bustard now survives in fragmented pockets, primarily in Rajasthan and Gujarat. Scientists estimate that only around 200 individuals remain today. Habitat loss, collisions with overhead power lines, and infrastructure development have pushed the species dangerously close to extinction.
What makes the decline even more tragic is that the bird’s disappearance reflects the collapse of an entire ecosystem. The great Indian bustard is often called the ‘flagship species’ of Indian grasslands because its survival depends on healthy, undisturbed open habitats. In many ways, their loss acts as a warning signal for the future of these landscapes.
Conservation Often Overlooks Grasslands
One of the biggest challenges faced by grasslands is perception. Due to the fact that these landscapes do not resemble forests, they are frequently targeted for plantations, agriculture, infrastructure projects, or industrial expansion. In some cases, even conservation efforts have unintentionally harmed grasslands through large-scale tree planting. Across India, tree-planting drives are often promoted as a way to increase the country’s green cover and combat environmental degradation. While these initiatives can be valuable in the right habitats, they can be damaging when carried out in natural grasslands.
Grasslands and scrublands may appear sparse, but these diverse habitats support complex ecological communities and provide refuge for countless species. [Photo © Wildlife SOS/ Akash Dolas]
Grasslands are not degraded forests waiting to be restored with trees. They are distinct ecosystems that have evolved to remain open. Planting dense rows of trees in these habitats can alter soil conditions, change vegetation structure, and make the landscape unsuitable for species such as blackbucks, wolves, floricans, and the great Indian bustard that depend on unobstructed terrain for survival.
Recognising this distinction is crucial. Healthy grasslands, scrublands, wetlands, and other open ecosystems are equally valuable components of India’s natural heritage. Researchers and conservationists have increasingly called for these habitats to be protected and managed on their own ecological terms rather than being viewed as “empty” or “unused” land.
Why These Ecosystems Matter
Grasslands help prevent soil erosion, support pollinators, store carbon underground, recharge groundwater, and sustain food chains that stretch from insects to apex predators. Many migratory birds depend on these open habitats during seasonal journeys. Smaller creatures, like reptiles, rodents, foxes, insects, and ground-nesting birds, all play essential ecological roles that often go unnoticed.
Moving quietly through the grass, jackals are a reminder that India’s most vibrant wildlife habitats are not always its forests. [Photo © Wildlife SOS/ Akash Dolas]
Grasslands are not only important for wildlife, they also support remarkable plant diversity. Seasonal grassland and plateau ecosystems across India can host rare and endemic flowering plants found nowhere else in the world. One striking example is Maharashtra’s Kaas Plateau, often called the ‘Valley of Flowers of Maharashtra’, where seasonal blooms transform the landscape and reveal an extraordinary diversity of native wildflowers adapted to these open habitats.
These ecosystems also support pastoral communities that have coexisted with grassland landscapes for generations, making them important not only for biodiversity but for people and traditional livelihoods as well.
Protecting What We Overlook
Despite the challenges, there are encouraging signs. Conservation breeding programmes for the great Indian bustard have seen important milestones in recent years, including successful chick hatchings and habitat restoration efforts in parts of Rajasthan. Scientists and forest departments are working together to secure remaining habitats and reduce threats like power-line collisions.
At Wildlife SOS, conservation efforts extend across diverse landscapes where wildlife and fragile habitats increasingly face pressure from human activity. Protecting wildlife also means protecting the ecosystems they call home, which definitely includes India’s rapidly vanishing grasslands. At the Ramdurga Valley in Karnataka, efforts made to restore the landscape using native plant species that naturally belong to the region have brought back more than many wildlife species. Rather than imposing a one-size-fits-all approach, the focus is on supporting the ecosystem according to its ecological needs, helping create suitable habitat for wildlife while maintaining the character of the landscape.
Open landscapes like Ramdurga in Karnataka are often overlooked in conservation conversations, despite playing a vital role in supporting biodiversity and ecological balance. [Photo © Wildlife SOS/ Akash Dolas]
As conversations around conservation continue to evolve, it is important to remember that not every ecosystem needs to become a forest. Grasslands, scrublands, wetlands, and other open habitats all play vital roles in supporting biodiversity. Because conservation cannot focus only on landscapes we find suitable for charismatic megafauna. Sometimes, the most overlooked ecosystems are the ones most in need of attention and protection. By supporting habitat restoration, scientific research, and wildlife conservation initiatives, you can help safeguard these often-forgotten ecosystems for future generations.
Feature image: Akash Dolas/ Wildlife SOS
