“Though just early days since their release, the captive-bred vultures in the first three days of their hard release (wilding) have been found to be moving in a 1 km radius from the spot where they were released. We’re continuously monitoring them and distributing educational pamphlets in villages of the area,” said Meena.The pamphlets contain pictures of the six vultures and their GPS tags. The villagers have been urged to inform the forest department in case any of the vultures are found injured or located for a long time at one place only, to ensure proper safety of the vultures.The vultures are being regularly tracked at the cattle carcass dumping site of a big gaushala (cowshed) in the area – which has been among the prime reasons for the area emerging as an ideal habitat of wild vultures in the state. “In the long run, the GPS tagging of the six vultures will particularly help us in observing which part of the country is best suited for them, is it their home state MP or other parts of India.”This first-of-its kind hard release (GPS tagging and wilding) of captive bred vultures in central India, happened 18 days after a one year old Eurasian Griffon male vulture (rescued from the state’s Vindhya region in January) which was housed at the vulture conservation-breeding centre in Bhopal for two months, was rewilded with GPS satellite tag on March 29 in the same area where the six Indian resident species vultures have been released on April 16.“That Eurasian Griffon vulture which was severely dehydrated when rescued in January, seems to be on an amazing journey back to home (Eurasia). In the 21 days since its release, it has flown more than 2500-plus kms and is currently tracked near the Afghanistan-Uzbekistan border,” Meena informed.
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