Conservationists thrilled by rare visitor in the Sahyadris

Eurasian Griffon vulture at Sahyadri Tiger Reserve. Pic/Santosh Chalke

A rare sighting in the Sahyadris, for the first time ever, has become a cause for celebration for the conservationists, who feel more people should be motivated into bird watching.

Maharashtra forest department officials, for the first time, spotted an Eurasian griffon vulture at the Sahyadri Tiger Reserve (STR). The vulture had a tag on its wing, which had been attached at the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary, they said. Ornithologist C Sasikumar had ringed the vulture after it was rescued and taken care of for a month or so last winter.

State forest guard Santosh Chalke had spotted the bird of prey around 10 am on May 9 at the STR.

Chief conservator of forests, Clement Ben from STR, said, "The bird has a tag - usually done for research to know it's habit and other behavioural patterns. We need to monitor the bird to understand its biology further. The bird was tagged in Cannanore and released in the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary. We are going to have a monitoring protocol in place after speaking with the Kerala forest department."

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Bombay Natural History Society Deputy Director Vibhu Prakash, who is also the programme head of vulture conservation in India, had helped the forest department team and researchers at Wayanad with the rescue and rehabilitation of this bird.

He said, "The bird reported by the Maharashtra forest guard is most probably the one tagged in Wayanad last year. It is a juvenile griffon vulture which is why it is spotted wandering around," Dr Prakash said.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature has lifted the Eurasian griffon (gyps fulvus) vulture as Least Concern - species evaluated with a lower risk of extinction. There are potentially over 1 million individuals and are increasing. It's widely distributed across Europe, northern Africa, western Asia and India.
It is huge in size, with pale tawny to sandy-buff; extensive down on head and neck; short cream-yellow to whitish ruff; yellowish bill; pale eyes; blackish cere; greyish legs and feet.

Rinkita Gurav, manager for raptor conservation, World Wide Fund for Nature-India, said, "It's encouraging to know that people and forest guards are spotting huge birds like vultures because of the awareness of the vulture crisis in India. We should motivate more and more people to take interest in bird watching. Citizen science plays an important role in such sightings. Maharashtra Forest Department should have an annual vulture population estimating and monitoring protocol in place."