Hopes are raised for Jerdon's Courser, currently on the Critically Endangered list. Photo: Simon Cook/RSPB

The 270-mile Teluga Ganga Canal, which will stretch from the holy town of Srisailam in central Andhra Pradesh to Chennai (Madras) on India’s west coast, will be diverted around the only remaining habitat of the Jerdon’s Courser, a striking nocturnal bird the size of a lapwing and found only in one region of Andhra Pradesh.

Scientists believe there may be only 50 of the birds left and feared that the canal’s original route would have destroyed their scrub-jungle habitat.

Now, nearly three years after the Supreme Court of India halted canal construction because of the threat it posed to the species, a new route has been agreed taking the canal away from most protected sites. State authorities will also compensate local villagers for the loss of extra land that will be managed to help the bird.

Dr Panchapakesan Jeganathan, a scientist at the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), said: “This bird is more threatened than the tiger and very few people have ever seen it.

“The threat the canal posed set the bird's future on a knife edge, but now there is every chance that it will survive this development and, with the right management, eventually increase its numbers.”

Jerdon’s Courser was thought extinct in 1900 until its rediscovery in the Kadapa District of Andhra Pradesh 22 years ago. The find led the Andhra Pradesh government to establish the Sri Lankamalleswara Wildlife Sanctuary in the district to safeguard the birds that remained, but when the canal threatened its protection, conservationists including the BNHS and RSPB urged the Supreme Court to intervene.

Several new routes for the canal were proposed following the court order but none were sufficiently far from the bird’s forest home. Officials have now agreed to divert the canal away from areas known to host Jerdon’s Courser and, in principle, to buy 3,000 acres of scrub forest between the new canal route and the sanctuary. The state’s Forest Department will manage that land to protect and enlarge the bird’s habitat.

Scientists believe other nearby scrub forests could be harbouring Jerdon’s Coursers and have been given permission to attach radio transmitters to two birds. They will also use cameras and footprint tracking strips to find out more about the species.