In Pinjore, dwindling vultures get a cautious, fighting chance

CHANDIGARH: A narrow road off the Chandigarh-Shimla highway leads to Jatayu Vulture Breeding Centre in Pinjore, Haryana. Nestled in the foothills of the Shivaliks, not many venture to this Haryana forest department property in Bir Shikargah Wildlife Sanctuary. On Friday, however, a battery of journalists, politicians, policemen and government officials accompanied chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar to the centre for the soft release of 10 artificially incubated vultures in the wild - a first for India and Asia.
Eight white-backed vultures and two Himalayan griffons were released one after another by Khattar and other officials in a spacious aviary next to the centre. Over the next few months, the vultures will get an opportunity to interact with other denizens of the sanctuary and learn how to live a life in the wild. For the chief minister, the release was akin to 'Swacch Bharat'. "They help in cleaning up the environment," the CM said as he walked back from the soft release.

Friday's landmark event was in the making for 14 years. The breeding centre was set up by Bombay Natural History Society and the state's forest department in 2001. Over the years, it has received funding from the UK's Royal Society for Protection of Birds (RSPB) and Darwin Initiative.

Some concern:

Even as the CM gave the thumbs-up to the release, there still were voices of concern about the vultures' safety. Talking to TOI on the sidelines of the event, Chris Bowden, the programme manager for RSPB's initiative SAVE and who has been coordinating operations between the Pinjore centre and RSPB, said it was not just the livestock drug Diclofenac that was a threat to the bird. "There are two other veterinary drugs, Aceclofenac and Ketoprofen, that can be fatal for vultures," he said.

Indian Veterinary Research Institute in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, was planning to start a study on the subject, but has not been able to do so because of a shortage of funds, Bowden added.

Asked about the risks vultures faced from the two livestock drugs, Haryana chief wildlife warden Amarinder Kaur said these drugs weren't used as much as Diclofenac. "Besides, we have been motivating livestock-rearers to use alternative drugs," she said.

Baby steps:

The vultures will not be completely released in the wild yet. A soft release basically means that the vultures would be given shelter at the aviary and provided food till the time they become self-sufficient and are finally released in the wild.

To help the vultures adapt, BHNS principal scientist Vibhu Prakash said, the conservationists will be carrying out surveys to check the availability of carcass and habitat for the vultures.

To ensure that the most endangered species are not risked right away, Dr Prakash said they would at first release the lesser-endangered Himalayan griffons. "Now that the soft release is over, we will be trying to get the birds to familiarize with their surroundings," he added.

For Bowden, this was the first time that he had seen so many people descend on the centre. "I have not seen this kind of an attention towards vultures before," he said. "It is good that the chief minister especially took out time to attend the event."