Two Long-billed Vultures that hatched in Haryana settle in MP

Two individual Jatayu Longbilled Vultures ndash Gyps indicus which were hatched in the closed aviary in Pinjore of Haryana and brought to Pench Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra in 2024 and later released into the wild have settled in Madhya Pradesh officials saidThey have now completed 15 months in the wild successfully and have settled in the forests of Madhya PradeshThe two Jatayu have brought great hope for vulture conservation in IndiaThe Bombay Natural History Society BNHS which has been working on the conservation breeding of vultures in India for the last 25 years recorded this success story BNHS shared this remarkable achievement through a press releaseBNHS established Indiarsquos first conservation breeding centre at Pinjore in Haryana with support from the Haryana Forest Department the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change MoEFampCC and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds RSPBThe two Jatayu were born on January 27 2020 in the closed aviary at Pinjore and reared by their parents They were brought to Pench Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra in January 2024 along with 10 other Longbilled Vultures for release into the wildBNHS and the Pench Tiger Reserve administration trained the vultures for six months and released them on August 10 2024BNHS Director Kishor Rithe provided further details on the postrelease movements of the birds saying that ldquoit has brought great hope for vulture conservation in IndiardquoBiologist Manan Singh who works with BNHS deployed his team to monitor the released birds over the last 15 monthsldquoThese birds were named N01 and N24 Following their release in Pench Maharashtra N24 demonstrated exceptional adaptability by locating and feeding on a tiger kill within Pench Maharashtra just 12 days after release Since then it has been observed feeding on both provisioned food and wild kills made by carnivores in Pench Maharashtra MH and Pench Madhya Pradesh MP on numerous occasionsrdquo said Manan SinghSingh further stated that ldquoN24 flew into Pench MP very early in its life in the wild and has since ventured into adjoining areas of Chhindwara and Balaghat districts covering distances of up to 50 km It currently resides in Pench MP and frequently roosts at sites such as Alikatta and KhawasardquoN24 has also been observed roosting with another captivebred vulture N01 on several nightsldquoWe are waiting for the day when N24 may form a pair with N01rdquo said Manan SinghAlthough the remaining birds could not survive the survival of these two individuals over the last 15 months has shown that captivebred and parentreared vultures can indeed survive in the wild said BNHS Director Kishor RitheldquoThis is not the only story mdash BNHS has released 31 birds in West Bengal 25 in Pinjore Haryana and 20 birds in MaharashtrardquoSeveral of these birds are surviving in the wild and learning to overcome threats such as transmission lines and scarcity of food he added