Out of 20 captive vultures released last year in the wild by the Forest Department, six have survived whereas six are untraceable and remaining have died. Forest Department and Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) are considering it as a success story as they had expected only 50% survival rate. Forest Department, with the help of BNHS, had brought 20 vultures from Vulture Conservation Breeding Centre (VCBC), Pinjore, Haryana last year. Among these, 10 were White-backed and 10 were Long-billed vultures. The 10 White-backed vultures were kept in captivity in Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) and 10 Long-billed vultures were brought to Pench Tiger Reserve (PTR).

 

After a few months, from conservation and breeding point of view, the Forest Department released all 20 scavengers in the wild to experiment how many of them survive in their natural habitat. Already, four Vulture Conservation and Breeding Centres in West Bengal, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Assam have achieved success in conservation and breeding 750 vultures of three species -- White-backed, Long-billed and Slender-billed -- from looming extinction. Government of India started releasing these vultures in the wild since 2020. Eight critically endangered Oriental White-backed vultures were released into the wild for the first time in Haryana in 2021 and then, another batch of 31 vultures were released in West Bengal.

 

Now, 20 scavengers were released in Maharashtra to check their survival rate. “We are happy that almost 50 per cent of vultures that we released last year survived in their natural habitat. With support of Government of India and VCBC, BNHS did this experiment in Maharashtra for the first time. It is a new thing as captive vultures have grown up in cages, and were released in the wild. If they have survived, then it is a success for us,” Kishor Rithe, Director, BNHS told ‘The Hitavada’. Forest Department, with the help of BNHS, did GPS tagging of all 20 vultures to monitor their movement. Eight vultures failed to survive, while six remain untraceable as the department is not getting any GPS data.

 

Out of remaining six, three scavengers have flown away and three are nesting in Pench Tiger Reserve. “We were monitoring these vultures from the beginning. Their survival in the wild was a challenging task as they never took flight in the wild, then they never took flight for long period and for long distance, also their acceptance among wild vultures was also a matter of concern for us,” said Rithe. Mentioning about TATR, Rithe said, “There was no vulture population nesting in TATR for a long time. In this situation, if any captive vulture is nesting in TATR or surviving in other parts of the country, then it is a win win situation for us. We released White-backed vultures in TATR and out of them, one vulture is now in Tamil Nadu.” Hopefully, out of 20, three Long-billed vultures are successfully nesting in Pench itself with other wild Red-headed and White-backed vultures. These three captive vultures are feeding with the wild scavengers, which is a great thing,” explained the BNHS Director. Recently, 25 captive vultures were released from Pinjore in presence of Haryana Chief Minister. Within 15 days, two vultures died due to electrocution by solar-based transmission lines.

 

Similarly, 31 vultures were released in West Bengal couple of years ago and among them, four scavengers also died due to electrocution. Vultures fly high in sky due to which they come in contact with high-tension lines. “Electrocution has now become a big threat for larger birds,” said Rithe. However, no death of vulture took place in Maharashtra due to electrocution after last year’s release, claimed Rithe. “We have collected the carcass of these scavengers and are conducting study to know the cause of their death,” he added.