‘Mumbai’s Birdman’ helps rare vulture take wing again
Endangered bird will be released back to nature on Wednesday after eight months of being nursed back to health
Arare and highly-endangered gigantic whiterumped vulture, figuring on the IUCN Red List and found in a near-dead condition, has been saved by a Mumbai family and is now ready to take wing.
After eight months of love and care, the strong and highly-aggressive bird — sporting a deadly beak, standing nearly three feet tall with a wingspan of around nine feet — will soar high in the sky from Wednesday.
“On Tuesday, we shall take this beautiful bird to the St John Church in Ballard Estate for a special blessing ceremony by the priest, Fr Joe D’Souza. The next day, we shall release it in the thick forests of Nashik,” its rescuer, Pradeep D’Souza, told IANS.
After the church ceremony, a team of Forest Department officials and a vet will examine the bird, issue a medical fitness certificate and then allow it to be released back to nature, he said, adding it figures on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of critically-endangered species.
Known as ‘Mumbai’s Birdman’ in nature circles, D’Souza, 42, and his family toiled virtually day and night to ensure the vulture was up on its wings and fit to answer the call of the wild.
“That evening [February 21], this vulture could barely keep his head steady. It had toxicity and infections, severe weakness due to hunger and blood loss and was virtually dead,” D’Souza recalled the ordeal, as the grim family started its treatment with medicines and prayers.
Now, it is completely hale and hearty, a happy D’Souza explained as his mother, brother, sister-in-law and niece smiled with joy.
Following the brief church blessing rituals and Forest Department formalities, the whiterumped vulture, for whom an NGO, Sparsh, specially created a 4x4x4 foot wooden cage, will be transported in a van to Nashik’s famed ‘Vulture Restaurant’ in Harsul forests, around 300km north of Mumbai. ■