Uttarakhand counts rare vultures after 18 years.
After 18 years, Uttarakhand will finally conduct a count of the endangered vultures. The top wildlife warden for the Forest Department in India, Sameer Sinha, was quoted in this newspaper as saying, “These four predatory birds belong to scheduled forest species.”
DEHRADUN: Four kinds of vultures will be closely examined by having satellite tags placed on them for the first time in Uttarakhand. This bird belonging to the predator group is in danger of being extinct. They have been designated as endangered birds by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). In order to conduct the study within the Rajaji and Corbett Tiger Reserves, the forest department has requested permission from the government to tag the birds.
According to Sameer Sinha, the forest department’s head wildlife warden, “These four predatory birds are scheduled forest species. In these circumstances, the Wildlife Act allows for the issuance of special purpose licences, following which state government approval is needed for instruction and research.According to Sinha, clearance from the government was requested in order to tag birds with satellite tags.
The study will be carried out under the auspices of Corbett Tiger Reserve in Kumaon and Rajaji Tiger Reserve in Garhwal, according to Dr. Saket Badola, director of Rajaji Tiger Reserve and project nodal officer. Information about the habitat, location, migratory, route, and living conditions will be acquired for this study. In this regard, the Chief Wildlife Warden has requested authorization for the study in a letter to the Principal Secretary of Forest and Environment. The red-headed vulture, the white-tailed vulture (also known as the white-rumped vulture), the white vulture (also known as the Egyptian vulture), and the Plas fish vulture species are the four vulture species that will be investigated in Uttarakhand.
The good news is that occasionally their existence has been discovered in various locations of Uttarakhand’s Kumaon and Garhwal mountain ranges, according to director Dr. Badola. These four predatory bird species are extremely rare. The forest department is committed to their conservation, and as a result, in-depth research will be done on them over the course of the following three years.
No one is certain of the precise number of vultures that are crucial to preserving Uttarakhand’s ecological balance, according to sources in the forest department. According to the state forest department’s statistics manual, for the year 2005, “the number of vultures in protected areas is 1,272 and 3,794 outside of protected areas, taking the total to 5,066” Since 2005, this data has not been updated, but the forest department has decided to “peek into the world of vultures” once more.
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