Treat to the eye as rare Himalayan Vulture makes a stop in Thane

THANE: At a time when the population of vultures has dwindled in the lake city and surrounding areas, a city-based nature lover spotted a rare Himalayan Vulture. The winged beauty was perched on a balacony of a housing society in Louiswadi.
Sandeep Dandekar, the bird watcher, spotted the Himalayan vulture— which is also called the Eurasian Griffin Vulture— while he was investigating the cacophony of bird calls outside his window on Monday.“I heard chaotic screeching of birds outside my window early in the morning. When I looked out, I was surprised to spot a large bird the balcony of a building opposite mine. I took my camera and zoomed in on the bird. That’s when I realised that the bird was actually the rare Himalayan Vulture. It flew away after half-an-hour,’’ said Dandekar.
“On doing some research, I found that this vulture comes under the near-threatened category by the International Union for Conservation of Nature,” he added.
Meanwhile, bird lovers, believe that it the vulture flew this long distance by mistake due to the cool climate.
Raju Kasambe, a bird expert and member of the Bombay Natural History Society, said, “The Himalayan Vultures are rarely sighted in the city as they live in areas like the Himalayas, Bhutan, Tibet, China and other such regions in the north. They, however, fly long distances, and that is one reasons why it must have come to Thane. The last sighting of this bird was a few years ago in Punjab by a forest official.”