Researchers of Corbett-based Mahseer Conservancy, who have been undertaking the annual vulture monitoring exercise in the region, report that every evening, after the heat of the day, as many as 90 per cent of the vultures in the colony can be found perched on trees with their heads drooped forward and resting on their chests.

“This worrying behaviour has been noticed over the past two weeks. Given the length of time it has been occurring for, it is unlikely to be a result of diclofenac poisoning, as diclofenac kills the birds within two or three days of consumption. Experts from the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), the England-based Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), and other vulture experts have indicated that the abnormal behaviour is being caused by heat stress and dehydration. Eventually, the already rare birds will die from this stress on their bodies,” cautioned Sumantha Ghosh, founder of Mahseer Conservancy in an exclusive conversation with The Pioneer.

Given that there are only around ten birds left in the region, naturalists are trying hard to capture these birds when they fall on the ground so that they may be treated and saved.

Ghosh said, “As in humans, the sick vultures can be given rehydrating drips and kept in a controlled environment. Veterinarian Dr S Bhalla of Corbett Tiger Reserve has been helpful and has agreed to treat the birds in his safe hands. The only way to save vultures that have heat stress is to wait until they fall from the trees, capture them and quarantine them, with plenty of food and water easily accessible to them.”

According to Dr Vibhu Prakash, director of Pinjore-based Vulture Breeding Centre of BNHS, the birds will fall (from their perches) within a month and require entrapment for anti-stress treatment.

The Indian White-backed Vulture is an endangered species that has witnessed a 99 per cent decline in its population in the last decade.

Children of Ringora village helping for the conservation of vultures

Among their rare colonies is Ringora, an “encroached” village with around 25 families on either side of NH-121, about three km north of Ramnagar in Nainital district.
With the help of local village children, volunteers of the NGO have been trying to capture these birds. However, it is only a short span of about 5 minutes for which a vulture is on the ground before it hides away, and often it is too late by the time the volunteers reach the spot. Cognizant of the urgency to address the issue, Ghosh appealed through The Pioneer, “I request the State forest department and concerned citizens to help with providing bird trappers who can stay in the vicinity for immediate action. Otherwise, it will not be long before we lose the few endangered species that we have left in the State.”

In a major boost for environmentalists, vultures were sighted in Uttarakhand after the recent discovery of the near-extinct birds in Himachal Pradesh.

Over 150 vultures of five species can be found nesting and feeding at three locations around Ramnagar in Uttarakhand — Van Gujjar village of Tumeria, Ringora and Hatidagar. The three sites fall under two categories:

Regular nesting sites (Ringora and Tumeria): Vultures are consistently seen roosting and occupying nests throughout the year and these are likely to be important breeding sites;

Regular feeding sites (Hatidagar): Cattle carcasses are regularly left here and vultures feed on them.

Ringora is an “encroached” village with around 25 families on either side of NH-121, about thee km north of Ramnagar in Nainital district. Earlier, Ringora residents used to keep a large number of cattle. However, at a time when the natural scavengers suffer a population catastrophe triggered by medicines; at Ringora, Indian white-backed vultures are seen roosting virtually every day on four trees, all of which are large kadam (Adina Cordifolia) trees. In a monitoring research undertaken recently by a Corbett-based vulture conservation NGO, 235 white-backed vultures were recorded in 60 observations spread over a month. Vultures in groups of 15 or more are often sighted here.

Significantly, the slender-billed vulture (SBVs), which is even more threatened than the tiger in India, has also been roosting occasionally at Ringora. A captive breeding scheme in India, run by a coalition of conservation groups, including the Royal Society for Protection of Birds and the Zoological Society of London, has seen successful hatching and fledging of two slender-billed vultures for the first time this year. Given that there are just 1,000 slender-billed vultures left in the wild, even the five resident SBVs recorded by researchers is good news for conservationists. Besides, Cinereous or black vulture and red-headed vulture have also been spotted at Ringora.

The second colony borders Tumeria dam, 22.5 km south-west of Ramnagar in Udham Singh Nagar. It is a village of Van Gujjars with about 15 families. Their general attitude is quite pro-vulture and, interestingly, the village also has an old Government poster dating at least 10 years with information on Rajasthani vultures. Well-known for their large holdings of buffaloes, these Gujjars have herds of hundreds grazing in and around the reservoir.

The village is surrounded on three sides by degraded sal forest (Shorea Robusta) and on these trees can be seen large numbers of white-backed vultures and their nests. The villagers say the vultures have been constantly roosting in the village for a couple of years now.

According to Tumeria residents, around 40 vultures can be seen roosting after 4 pm just about every day. Corroborating it, Sumantha Ghosh of Corbett Tiger Reserve in interactions with The Pioneer recounted having observed 49 vultures on August 24 and 39 vultures on August 2 this year.

The vultures found at Tumeria roost in the upper canopy of the sal trees in the village and appear to nest within the approximate boundaries of the village. Forest officials attributed the presence of the very large number of vultures in the area to frequent presence of carcasses nearby.

The third location is a regular feeding site of the white-backed, Egyptian and slender-billed vultures. Hatidagar is a scattered village 9.2 km south-west of Ramnagar in Nainital. The place where these vultures are being sighted is not situated within the village, but is close to a gurdwara by the side of a drying riverbed, where cattle carcasses are regularly left. On July 23, 17 SBVs and 12 WBVs were recorded (the majority observed feeding on the remains of a carcass) and on August 24, 17 WBVs were present at this site.

Information from local naturalists indicates that the vultures have been frequenting this place regularly in the last couple of years. Both slender-billed and white-backed species appear to use the Bombax Ceiba trees, popularly known as cotton trees, as temporary roosting spots while there is food available at the site. With their breeding season at its peak starting October, dedicated monitoring and preservation of these vulture colonies must be taken up on priority; for their extinction is likely in the next 10 years. We do not have any time to waste.

You can find this article by clicking on the following link:

http://www.dailypioneer.com/206903/Hope-takes-wings-as-vulture-colonies-thrive-in-Uttarakhand.html

Rishad is currently the director of Godrej Group of Companies. To now more about what is happening in Ornithology in India please log on to www.indianbirds.in.

Hanuman and Ram

Ram Leelas are one of the most celebrated festivals in the Hindu religion. The format is for every town and village to hold their own Ram Leelas re-enacting the Ramayana – the story of Rama – over 10 consecutive days, telling each “chapter” of the story on the different days.

The general overview of the Ramayana is that after Rama, Lakshman and Sita are exiled into the forest Sita is kidnapped by the king of Lanka, Ravana. With the help of the monkey army led by Hanuman and also some vultures who have seen Ravana taking Sita, Rama and Lakshman begin their epic voyage to rescue Sita and for Rama to gain his rightful place as the king of Kosala.

The Ramayana is a very animalistic story – there are various animals that are important to not only the Indian culture and Hindu religion but also crucial to the survival of the Indian wildlife and nature. For example there is the vulture that, after being mortally wounded trying to rescue Sita from Ravana, the king of Lanka, which informs Rama and Lakshman that Sita has been kidnapped. Also Rama is cursed after Rama’s father kills a Sarus Crane (the tallest flying bird) at the beginning of the story – and it is due to this curse that eventually Rama’s step-mother gets Rama exiled for fourteen years and gives the story reason to happen. There is also the golden deer that Sita wants Rama to kill which then leads to Lakshman leaving Sita by their hut and eventually being enticed out of the magic circle and getting kidnapped by the demon-king of Lanka.

Vanishing Vultures being Screened

Even in the small villages the Ram Leelas are made to be as impressive as possible. There are hundreds of people attending in the small villages and even more in the bigger towns; each Ram Leela is full of singing, dancing, music and general festivities.  Throughout the evening there are pauses in proceedings in between acts. These are primarily for changing the costumes, the background and also giving the people a little rest to get some food etc. Normally these intervals last between 20-30mins. It is these intervals that give Mahseer Conservancy the perfect opportunity to raise awareness to the local people and farmers about the critical decline of the vulture population throughout the whole of India.

The Ram Leelas are also used to raise awareness by Mahseer Conservancy as there are hundreds of people all in one place looking at the stage – where, of course, there was, during the intervals, a projector screen placed in full view. The plan was for the “V-team” to go to the Ram Leelas and during the intervals to put on a short film promoting awareness as to why the vultures are dying out at such an alarming rate and also showing how they, the people, could prevent the extinction of a creature that is vital to the eco-system.

Sanjay appeals for vultures

After the film was shown there was a short speech made to emphasize the most important parts of the feature and also awareness leaflets were handed out en-masse to as many people as possible in the audience.

Distributing Pamphelets

Although it’s impossible to measure the success of the campaign using numbers and figures it is possible to show how much people cared about it; the Ramayana and therefore Ram Leelas are big Hindu festivals and no-one objected to the film depicting dead cows and even the skinning of the cow carcasses which is quite amazing as it showed that even the more religious Hindus were prepared to look at pictures of to them, sacred, cows dead and dying in the name of vulture conservation. Not to mention the amount of press coverage that the campaign got – making it on to both local and nation television, and also getting into the newspapers.

Simple Message for an Important Issue

Audience watching Vulture awareness programme

Hopefully, and with the help of this type of awareness rising, in the near future we will be able to see vultures circling in the sky once again.