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Cinereous Vulture Rehabilitaion |
Cinereous Vulture Rehabilitation | The Cinereous vultures are among the largest vultures in Asia. Their range includes west-central Asia and east central Europe. It is an extremely rare visitor to India. I have only had one previous sighting of the Cinereous Vulture in Gujarat, in the '60s | Even M.K. DharmaKumarsinhji, the author of The Birds of Saurashtra has just listed three sightings of this vulture. In addition there have been very rare sightings of this vulture reported from the Kutch area. On December 12th 2003, Dr. Indra Gadhavi brought to my attention the presence of a Cinereous Vulture with an injured wing on the outskirts of Bhavanagar. When the forest department learnt of the vulture's presence they were contemplating taking it to the Junagadh zoo. When I saw the vulture I realized that it would be better for this valuable and rare bird to be rehabilitated and released back to the wild instead of housing it in the zoo. I brought this fact to light to the forest officials and eventually persuaded Mr. B.J. Pathak the conservator of forests, Wildlife Circle Junagadh to allow me to try and nourish this bird back to health in order to facilitate its eventual release into the wild.
After obtaining custody of the bird, I had it perched on a low hanging branch of a Neem tree in our one-acre compound free from any form of captivity or restraint. I had the injured left wing X-Rayed and noticed a cracked HUMERUS bone. The bird was incapable of any flight. I devised a series of elevated structures from which the bird could hop up and down from the tree limb without any assistance. After 5 weeks of proper nourishment and care the bird started to gradually make use of its wings to fly which started from hops of a few yards to flights straight up on top of our 3 story roof top. Because of the bird's tendency to climb on the 3-story rooftop, I realized that there was a strong likelihood of it escaping from my custody, which would make it practically impossible to monitor its progress any, further. So I arranged with Mr. B.J. Pathak, the conservator of forests wildlife circle Junagadh to have it released in Black Buck National Park that is mostly grassland and ideal for observing the bird up to a distance of 5-10 Kilometers. Mr. Pathak took time from a very busy schedule to be present at this event. On 22nd Jan. I took the bird to Black Buck National Park that is about 50 kilometers from Bhavnagar while transporting the bird I took all necessary care and in the presence of Mr. Pathak and other forest officials released the bird. The bird however was not inclined to soar to sufficient height and came back after flying a stretch of 200-300 yards. We then decided to wait a little further.
I was still confident that the vulture would certainly fly. We kept the vulture in Blackbuck National park under the care of Mr. Rathod, the Range Forest Officer. Since the30th of January the vulture was left free in Blackbuck National Park, where I learned from the forest guards that it routinely flew distances ranging from 500 to1000 meters and since the 2nd of February it started soaring to Fairly high altitude during the afternoon. It started roosting on trees in the park during night all by itself this continued for almost a week. Mr. Rathod informed me that the vulture had disappeared on The 4th of February without a trace informed. On hearing this I went to the National Park with Dr. Indra Gadhvi and we thoroughly searched the entire park and near by area but could not locate the vulture. Having observed the vulture's progress over the past few weeks I am confident that the vulture has recovered completely and has flown off to fend for itself. I am also certain that the efforts I made to remain discreet from the vulture has ensured that the vulture will still avoid proximity to humans and hopefully stay out of harm's way
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