Nagpur: The Forest Department on Monday released 10 Long Billed Vultures brought from Jatayu Conservation and Breeding Centre (JCBC), Pinjore, Haryana in the newly constructed vulture aviary set up in East Pench Forest range in Pench Tiger Reserve (PTR).
Pench Tiger Reserve has been home to vultures for many years. Between 1990 and 2006, the number of vultures in the country declined at a very rapid rate. Due to the NSAID drug Diclofenac used in domestic cattle, the vultures, that were easily seen near human settlements, have now disappeared. Since dead domestic cattle are the main food of vultures, the number of vultures that depend on these domestic animals has decreased rapidly.
Mainly Long Billed Vulture, White Backed Vulture and Slendor Billed Vultures of the genus Gyps, were included in the Critically Endangered list of IUCN. For the conservation of these vultures, the Vulture Action Plan was issued by the Union Ministry of Forests and Environment in 2006 and banned the veterinary use of NSAID drug Diclofenac, which causes the death of these vultures.
Also,to increase the number of vultures by conserving them, Vulture Conservation Centres have been established in Haryana, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, and West Bengal, in which the above three affected vulture species were revived by breeding them. As the new-born vultures produced in the said breeding centres need to be released in their natural habitat, Forest Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar has decided to release vultures in their natural habitat in Pench and Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserves (TATR), underlining the importance of the bird ‘Jatayu’ in the Ramayan on the occasion of ‘Pran Pratishtha’ ceremony in Ayodhya Ram Mandir.
Thus, 10 Long Billed Vultures each were released in the aviary set up in the TATR and Pench in the last 48 hours. These vultures will be kept in the aviary for around 3 months and then released into their natural habitat to acclimatise with the naturally existing Free Ranging Vultures.
10 Long Billed Vultures released in Vulture aviary in Pench Tiger Reserve under the guidance of Dr Prabhu Nath Shukla, Deputy Director, PTR; Kishore Rithe, Director, BNHS and Pooja Limbgaonkar, Assistant Conservator of Forests (APU). This release process was executed by Vivek Rajurkar, Forest Range Officer, East Pench, Piparia; Manan Singh Mahadev, Biologist, BNHS; and Dr Sujith Kolangath, Senior Veterinary Officer, Gorewada Rescue Centre, Nagpur.
