The Sarus crane is the tallest flying bird in the world standing 152-156 cm tall with a wingspan of 240cm. It has apredominantly grey plumage with a naked red head and upper neck and pale red legs. Females are smaller, growingto about 35-40kg, while the males grow bigger, up to 40-45kg. It is a social creature, found mostly in pairs or smallgroups of three or four. Known to mate for life with a single partner, its breeding season coincides with heavy rainfallin monsoon. Nests are constructed on water in natural wetlands or in flooded paddy fields. Usually a clutch has onlyone or two eggs, which are incubated by both parents for a period of 26 to 35 days. The juveniles follow their parentsfrom the day of birth. The main threat to the Sarus crane in India is habitat loss and degradation due to draining the wetland andconversion of land for agriculture. The landscape of its historic range is rapidly changing due to construction ofhighways, housing colonies, roads, and railway lines. More recently, many deaths have been recorded due to collisionwith power lines. Also, due to the increase in agricultural land, Sarus cranes are left with no choice but to forage inthese fields, and as a result ingest pesticides, which lead to poisoning. WWF-India has provided technical support for the restoration and management of key wetlands, , such as theSurajpur wetland in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh. Two wetlands in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh have been adopted forrestoration activities. Local communities are made aware of the hazards of releasing agrochemicals into the wetlandsand discouraged to continue practices that would be detrimental to the health of the wetland. Policy and advocacy:WWF-India played an instrumental role in setting up the Sarus Crane Conservation Committee in Uttar Pradesh. Italso assists the state in developing projects to enhance Sarus crane conservation initiatives.