Chosen vultures baulk at freedom's flight

Bir Shikar Gah (Pinjore): The two Himalayan griffon vultures, for whom the doors of captivity were thrown open at noon on Friday, baulked at taking a historic flight to freedom. Disturbance caused by the posse of mediapersons and entourages of environment and forests minister Prakash Javadekar, Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar and other dignitaries resulted in the griffons turning nervous and uncertain.The duo did not dare step outside their pre-release enclosure to take a dig at the freshly-slaughtered black goat placed tactfully just outside captivity's gates. There were three crows darting in and out of the enclosure, as they feed along with vultures, and they kept egging their bigger mates to venture out but the griffons didn't muster the nerve.
This forced the dignitaries to retire to the conference room at the Jatayu Conservation Breeding Centre (JCBC) here and watch the movements of the vultures via CCTV camera. The dignitaries left soon after and so did the disappointed media paparazzi, who had hoped for an image of the two vultures flying to freedom. Till last reports came in before sundown, the two vultures were still very 'comfy in captivity'.
Javadekar named one of the two vultures, fitted with wing tags, as 'Jodh Singh' taking from village Jhodhpur, where the JCBC is situated. "I laud the role of the Bombay Natural History Society and the Haryana government's supportive efforts for vulture conservation. Local people and global wildlife NGOs have also contributed to this effort," said Javadekar.
"We will keep the pre-release enclosure's gates open during the night and tomorrow also. After everyone left, there was still disturbance as tents and other arrangements for visiting dignitaries were being removed. These two vultures were not born in captivity but were rescued from the wilderness. But they have been in captivity for more than eight years and are accustomed to safety and food availability. A maximum of 35 wild vultures have been visiting the area outside the pre-release enclosure since November 2015 and feeding there. They have developed bonds with the captive vultures and we hope that these two griffons will leave their enclosure, embrace the wild group and learn survival skills. These two vultures will act as sentinel birds and will allow us to determine how they survive in the wilderness. If their release is successful, we will commence the release of the three critically-endangered species born in captivity," said Dr Vibhu Prakash, who heads this pioneering project.
Hardly had Javadekar left the venue and he was tweeting pictures of the ceremony and projecting the vulture programme as India's first planned reintroduction of an avian species and a part of the Narendra Modi Government's #SwachhBharat. Javadekar had earlier told mediapersons: "We are marking World Environment Day (June 5) this year as a dedication to the conservation of endangered species. The government will make more funds available for the conservation of such species by allocating a share from the Rs. 42,000 crore CAMPA funds."
The central government's vulture action plan envisages the release into 'Vulture Safe Zones' of 600 pairs of the three critically-endangered species in the decade following the first successful full release. From a population estimated at four crore in the 1980s, Indian vultures suffered a catastrophic decline and numbered a mere lakh in 2008 due to such agents of mortality as diclofenac.