Vulture Conservation in Central Gujarat

WHITE - RUMPED VULTURE (GYPS BENGALENSIS)NESTING - MONITORING IN KHAMBHAT:

White- rumped Vulture was once abundant in South-East Asia, and the Indian Sub-continent.

But unfortunately today they have declined from many parts of their ranges owing to food shortages and loss of habitat.

STUDY AREA:

We conducted a survey of this Critically Endangered White-rumped Vulture in Khambhat, located on the plains of River Mahi, District Anand, Gujarat.

Gujarat luckily has good population of these vultures that helped us to select Khambhat as our STUDY AREA.

MONITORING:

Monitoring being a very crucial part of our work to assess the impact of conservation work being carried out and level of awareness among local community.

August-September is the right period of monitoring the nesting sites.

During this period, we regularly monitored nesting/roosting colonies, feeding sites and pharmacies too.

We have been monitoring these colonies since last 9 years and have carried on with Gps mapping of active nests, tree species , nest height and tree height. 

Photo-documentation has been restricted as it may disturb the vultures.

EGYPTIAN VULTURES (NEOPHRON PERCNOPTERUS) NESTING-MONITORING IN HATHIDRA, NORTH GUJARAT:

The Egyptian vulture(Neophron percnopterus) , also called White scavenger vulture , is widely distributed in

Indian sub-continent .It mainly feeds carrion, small mammals, birds and reptiles.

It is an endangered species and has steadily shown decline in its population all over Gujarat and other parts of India.

STUDY AREA:

We surveyed extensively its concentration area to understand the cause behind the population decline and chose HATHIDRA , a village in Palanpur Taluka in Banaskantha district of Gujarat.

MONITORING:

The Egyptian vultures breed later in the year between April or May.

Couples build nest together, in rocky areas, often on cliffs.

Under our conservation program we have documented their active nesting sites. Usualyl they nest near human settlements and hence Awareness program for local community too is a crucial agenda on our list of work.

Again photo-documentation is a restricted process looking into the critical situation where we don't want to disturb these species.

LONG-BILLED VULTURE( gyps indicus) NESTING-MONITORING IN SANTRAMPUR,GUJARAT:

This vulture is Critically Endangered since steady decline in its population. Its Breeding season started from Nov-March.

STUDY AREA:

Santrampur, is a town of Mahisagar district of Gujarat state. It is near Jhalod Taluka in Dahod district, Gujarat. (70 kms from Dahod). 

MONITORING:

Long-billed vulture breeds in colonies.

This species-Gyps indicus breeds on the cliffs.

They usually nest around human colonies. Mainly they feed on carrion and remains of cattles that increase their chances of poisoning.

What we generally evaluate from our studies is that these all species nest around village ponds and human habitation.

Thus besides our scientific work of collection of data under conservation program also equally needs to parallely run the Awareness program among local people. 

These constantly needs man-power , time and also financial support from all corners of the state.

We kindly request you to donate generously to help us in carrying with our long-term program of conservation and increase in their(vulture) population , thereby conserving the ecosystem.

Introduction:

The Indian long-billed vulture (Gyps indicus) is a typical vulture, with bald head, very broad wings and short tail feathers. It is an avian natural scavenger. Its population in the wild has declined by 97% drastically over the past decade in India and by 95% in the entire Asian Continent.

The  widespread  usage  of  Diclofenac  drug  led  to  this  rapid population decline.

Vulture Habitat- Pavagadh cliff :

The Pavagadh (Pavakdurga) (22°28’ N; 73°35’E) is situated at a distance of about 47km to the east of Baroda. It is rising in distinct steps with massive but clear cut outline of about 830 mts, above the plain. Breeding colony of Indian long-billed vulture is situated on the southern face of about 830 mtrs meter high elevated rock cliff .

Breeding biology of vulture:-

They are long-lived birds with a life span of up to 30 years recorded in captivity.They mature slowly too and start to breed only at the age of six or seven years.

 Importance of the species: -

 Vultures are an important component of the ecosystem performing the role as scavengers by consuming dead and decaying animal carcasses, thereby keeping the environment clean and healthy.

Methodology:-

Observations & Results --

Nests were observed on a steep-sided cliff, located on the southern face of the Pavagadh cliff. The nests were constructed about 90-100 mtr from the ground and were quite inaccessible to humans either from the ground level or from the top of the cliff.

The last week of  September, nest construction was observed. All nests were marked and being continuously monitored in the day time. Since a month’s observation showed a positive result of increase in nesting.

November is the breeding and egg-laying period of these Avians. So we are hoping for more increase in nesting and safe egg-laying.

This preliminary data on nesting success of the species is of conservation significance to understand nature and extent of habitat use and decline rate of the species in and around study site.

We have a plan to implement detailed studies to get ecological insights of nesting habitat decline and anthropogenic effects on breeding pairs with effective monitoring tool for long term thrive of the long billed vultures in Pavagadh, Gujarat.

We need your constant support the way you have been giving us in past. Thanks form the bottom of our heart for your donations and support.

Kindly donate generously to enable us to carry on with our efforts to restore the population of endangered long-billed vultures.