Forest dept to collaborate with Ela Foundation to tag eight such birds in the state in a bid to step up conservation efforts by perceiving various threats.
The forest department is preparing to tag eight vultures in the state to better track their movement and feeding patterns and thereby help in the conservation of the species. While camera traps and monitoring of vultures has yielded a lot of data, there are certain aspects about the bird that cannot be covered with those. Keeping this in mind, foresters will collaborate with Ela Foundation, which has been studying these birds through camera traps since last year, for the tagging.
"We need permission from the Centre for this, which we got last week. We will start work soon. This project will give us more information about the vultures, which can be used for their conservation," said Sunil Limaye, chief conservator of forests from the Pune wildlife division. The tagging will be done with the help of satellite telemetry, which will mark the GPS location as well as the altitude of the bird. This, experts believe, will help in fulfilling the lacunae of knowledge about the avian species.
Dr Satish Pande, founder of Ela Foundation, explained, "There is not much idea where the birds go to when not in the nest, what is their feeding range or where the young ones go when they grow up. Tagging will help us identify all this." Their earlier studies, through camera traps as well as live streaming, had led to many findings such as loss of eggs due to Bonelli's eagle attacking it or even starvation of chicks when parent birds went out in search of food and returned late. However, the camera trap method or live screening cannot answer questions about their flight or ground usage.
At present, four each of Whiterumped vultures and Long-billed vultures would be tagged. The tagged birds would be from different age groups so as to differentiate between the range of adults and fledgling birds. "We do not know where the birds regularly go to roost. Also, the monsoon in the Western Ghats is severe and we do not know where they go when it rains. This study will help us identify all of that," added Pande.
He also stated that in order to stop these birds from srarving, there are various vulture restaurants at places that the birds are known to visit. "Knowing these new locations will also help identify if there are threats in the other areas where they go. This would enable in-situ (in the natural habitat) conservation by minimising such threats. Tagging will also help design vulture restaurants in those areas as the bird cannot fly immediately after eating and has to run a little to lose some weight before it can take flight," he stressed.
Previously, the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) had done a similar project using a platform transmitter. Vibhu Prakash, principal scientist from BNHS, said, "The project gave us crucial information, such as the vulture's foraging range, time for its flight and its interaction with other wild birds. Tagging gives accurate information, but can only be done with a limited number of birds at a time. We are also going to tag birds that we release from the breeding centres, since there is a need for more data," he added.