Six vultures released as an experiment tracked; 2 reach Pak
Kolkata: The six vultures which were released in the wild by the state Forest department in December 2019, as part of an an experiment to see the flight range of the avians and their survival pattern, from the Vulture Conservation Breeding Centre at Rajabhatkhawa in the Buxa Tiger Reserve has been able to cope up with its natural habitat at different places in the country as well as in neighbouring Pakistan.
Four of the vultures released were fitted with orange colour tags. Interestingly movement of two of them were tracked in Pakistan some days back and presently tracking have not been possible indicating that they have carved out a niche in the neighbouring country.
The other two have been tracked in Uttar Pradesh. Two of the vultures that were fitted with satellite transmitters have been found moving in and around the Bengal- Assam border and Bengal- Bhutan border respectively. There are observation groups all over the world who do tracking of such birds' movement fitted with satellite transmitters or tags. They have given feedback about the vultures' movement. Last month one vulture that was released from Nepal had come to Bengal and the information was passed over to the state Forest department by the same group.
"It was an experiment on our part to see the flight range of the avians and their survival pattern. We had theoretically considered some routes of the vultures' movement when they were released. Things have gone in the right direction and we will be releasing more vultures soon," said Ravikant Sinha, Chief Wildlife Warden.
The department has plans to release 60 vultures in the wild in phases from the Rajabhatkhawa breeding centre. There are nearly 110 vultures in the centre that include Oriental White-backed vulture, Long-billed vulture and Slender-billed vulture.
It may be mentioned that about 20 years back, it was revealed in a survey that the population of vulture was declining fast, thanks to the use of diclofenac. The drug that remains in cattle flesh was identified as the cause that was killing the scavenger birds while those were consuming the cattle carcasses. In the wake of this deplete, the union government decided to set up vulture breeding centres across the country with the aim to stabilise this avian population. The Rajabhatkhawa centre was then set up and in 2006, the first captive breeding of a Slender-billed vulture was carried out here.
Vulture conservation has assumed utmost importance after a recent study in 2016, reported that of the 22 vulture species, nine are critically endangered, three are endangered and four are near threatened.
