Two officials of Sanjay Gandhi National Park recently spotted a Himalayan vulture inside the protected forest in what is being called a rare sighting of the scavenger bird. The species is native to the Himalayas and the adjoining Tibetan Plateau and is one of the two largest vultures and true raptors.

Chaitral Dharadhar, an artist at the Taxidermy Center, and Jayesh Vishwakarma, an education officer, at SGNP ended 2020 on a jubilant note when they spotted the bird, also called Gyps himalayensis, on December 31.