Increased agricultural intensity is often thought to have led to declines in sarus crane numbers, but they also benefit from wetland crops and the construction of canals and reservoirs.

In 1743 the English naturalist George Edwards included an illustration and a description of the sarus crane in the first volume of his A Natural History of Uncommon Birds.

[9] In the resulting rearrangement to create monophyletic genera, four species, including the sarus crane, were placed in the resurrected genus Antigone that had originally been erected by German naturalist Ludwig Reichenbach in 1853.

[17] Analysis of mitochondrial DNA from a limited number of specimens suggests that gene flow occurred within the continental Asian populations until the 20th-century reductions in range, and that Australia was colonized only in the Late Pleistocene, some 35,000 years ago.

[20] The adult sarus crane is very large, with grey wings and body, a bare red head, collar and nape, a greyish crown, and a long, greenish-grey, pointed bill.

[5][33][34] Although now found mainly at low elevations on the plains, some historical records exist from highland marshes further north in Harkit Sar and Kahag in Kashmir.

[35] The sarus crane breeds in some high elevation regions such as near the Pong Dam in Himachal Pradesh, where populations may be growing in response to increasing rice cultivation along the reservoir.

[36] Field surveys and detailed observations of sarus cranes increased greatly in Myanmar by 2022, with a strong focus on the Ayeyarwadi delta.

Surveys across multiple townships discovered over 150 pairs of breeding Sarus Cranes (with a maximum of 185 nests monitored in 2018[31]), suggesting that the population in this region is far higher than was previously known.

Breeding records (confirmed sightings of nests with eggs, or of adult birds with flightless young) were known from only three locations, all in the Gulf Plains in Queensland.

[45] Territorial, breeding sarus crane pairs in northern Queensland along the Gulf of Carpentaria use a range of habitats, but preferentially use low, open woodland on quaternary alluvial plains in outer river deltas and levees with a vegetation of Lysiphyllum cunninghamii, Eucalyptus microtheca, Corymbia confertiflora, Melaleuca spp., Excoecaria parvifolia, Atalaya hemiglauca, Grevillea striata, Eucalyptus leptophleba, C. polycarpa, C. confertiflora, and C.

The fourth population is "perennially resident" and found in areas such as southwestern Uttar Pradesh, where artificial and natural water sources enable cranes to stay in the same location throughout the year.

[18][47][48] In semi-arid areas, breeding pairs and successfully fledged juveniles depart from territories in the dry season and join non-breeding flocks.

[49] In areas with perennial wetlands on the landscape, such as in western Uttar Pradesh, numbers of nonbreeding sarus cranes in flocks can be relatively stable throughout the year.

[18] Occasionally tackling larger vertebrate prey such as water snakes (Fowlea piscator),[22] sarus cranes may in rare cases feed on the eggs of birds[56] and turtles.

[54] In their breeding grounds in north-eastern Australia, isotopic analyses on molted feathers revealed sarus crane diets to comprise a great diversity of vegetation, and restricted to a narrow range of trophic levels.

[31][41][42] An exception to this rule was the unseasonal nesting observed in the artificially flooded Keoladeo-Ghana National Park,[49] and in marshes created by irrigation canals in Kota district of Rajasthan, India.

[31] More pairs are able to raise chicks in years with higher total rainfall, and when territory quality was undisturbed due to increased farming or development.

[79] Endoparasites that have been described include a trematode, Opisthorhis dendriticus from the liver of a captive crane at the London zoo[80] and a Cyclocoelid (Allopyge antigones) from an Australian bird.

[5][34] Additionally, emerging evidence from both Nepal and India show agriculture to be conducive for Sarus crane breeding contrary to the unsubstantiated assumptions made while suggesting population declines.

[71][91] The role of rice paddies and associated irrigation structures may be particularly important for the birds' conservation, considering that natural wetlands are increasingly threatened by human activity.

[71] Compensating farmers for crop losses has been suggested as a helpful measure, but needs to be implemented judiciously so as not to corrupt and remove existing local traditions of tolerance.

[5][76] Farmers in Sarus crane wintering areas in Australia are beginning to use efficient methods to harvest crops, which may lead to lowered food availability.

[14][38] The Southeast Asian population, however, has been decimated by war and habitat change (such as intensive agriculture, deforestation, and draining of wetlands), and by the mid-20th century, had disappeared from large parts of its range, which once stretched north to southern China.

[5] Multiple institutions are now working in Myanmar alongside farmers, nature clubs, and other enthusiasts to increase awareness on Sarus Crane conservation, and to monitor critical aspects of ecology of the species such as breeding success and mapping distributions.

[30][31] The situation in Myanmar appears to be similar to India and Nepal where farming cycles and farmer attitudes are conducive to Sarus Cranes, with healthy populations being widespread in both locations.

[1] Threats listed include habitat destruction and/or degradation, hunting and collecting, and environmental pollution, and possibly diseases or competing species.

[38] Emerging evidence from south Asia (Nepal and India), Myanmar and Australia suggests that the species is likely not as threatened as assumed before, and that human activities in these countries (floodplain, small-holder farming and cattle raising) supports a substantial and healthy breeding population of Sarus Cranes.

[95] The species is venerated in India, and legend has it that the poet Valmiki cursed a hunter for killing a sarus crane and was then inspired to write the epic Ramayana.

[101] According to 19th-century British zoologist Thomas C. Jerdon, young birds were good to eat, while older ones were "worthless for the table.”[102] Eggs of the sarus crane are, however, used in folk remedies in some parts of India.