Pinjore’s vultures on a wing and a prayer for survival
KEEPING TRACK Breeding centre to release first batch of vultures with transmitters into the wild TRACKING LIFE
Six endangered vultures, born and bred in captivity at Pinjore’s Jatayu Conservation Breeding Centre, 20 km from Panchkula, will fly free by the year-end. Two adult vultures will accompany them.
Their flight is special because they will sport satellite transmitters that allow the centre to monitor their survival into the wild. If all goes well, 100 pairs of three endangered species, namely white-backed, slender-billed and longbilled Gyps, will be released in 10 years.
Vultures face extinction in India due to their contact with fatal veterinary drug diclofenac, which they consume while feeding on cattle carcass. The use of diclofenac in treating cattle has gone down since the ban in 2007 . Vultures die of renal failure due to diclofenac poisoning.
Centre head Vibhu Prakash says the telecom department allowed the satellite-based tracking system to be tagged to the wings of the birds last month. “We’ve got the radio frequency. The Haryana forest department will buy satellite transmitters and we should be ready to fly by the year-end,” he says.
The permission was awaited since November 2015 and clearance took time due to security concerns.
Haryana principal conservator, wildlife, Gulshan Ahuja says, “The transmitters are available in Europe and US. We have applied for the import licence and placed the order. It can take two months. A single piece costs ₹5 lakh.”
Prakash, a principal scientist with Bombay Natural History Society that runs the Pinjore centre along with the Haryana government since 2001, says of the eight vultures to be released with the transmitters, six are whitebacked. Two are adult vultures caught at the beginning of the breeding programme. The centre is preparing the birds by making them habitual to dummy tags.
Last year, the centre released two Himalayan Griffons brought in 2005. They couldn’t be tracked after release.