Endangered white-rumped vulture rescued in USTR after 400-km flight from Maharashtra

Raipur: Forest team at the Udanti Sitanadi Tiger Reserve (USTR), Chhattisgarh, on Tuesday successfully rescued a sick vulture that had flown nearly 400 km from the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) in Maharashtra."A critically endangered white-rumped vulture, which flew over 400 km from Maharashtra's Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve, was rescued in USTR around 11 am on Tuesday," stated USTR deputy director Varun Jain.The vulture was discovered in a weak state during a foot patrol in the Kandasar beat of the Indagaon buffer range at 11 am. Radheshyam Yadav, a patrol worker, spotted the bird and alerted range officer Sushil Kumar Sagar. The vulture, fitted with a micro-transmitter and GPS from Tadoba, appeared to be suffering from dehydration or illness, which prevented it from flying.Following the guidance of vulture expert Abhijit Sharma from Bilaspur, the USTR team provided the bird with water and artificial feed before carefully moving it from the dense forest. Later veterinary experts from Jungle Safari from Raipur arrived at Gariaband to shift the bird into a rescue cage for transport to the Nava Raipur Jungle Safari for medical treatment.In a joint statement, PCCF (Wildlife) Arun Pandey, and USTR field director Satovisha Samajdar stated that after treatment, the vulture will be released back into a safe habitat. They said 70 percent of the Udanti–Sitanadi Tiger Reserve comprises hilly forest areas, and the presence of vultures has been recorded earlier as well in the Odh–Amamora hill ranges.