Count them in, endangered Egyptian Vulture spotted at Phansad

A vulture was last spotted at the Phansad Wildlife Sanctuary in 2015 which was a resident vulture. The one spotted in the first week of November this year was an Egyptian Vulture, an endangered species

Navi Mumbai For the first time in last seven years the Thane wildlife forest department and Green Works Trust (GWT) spotted a vulture at Phansad bird sanctuary during the recently-conducted fifth scientific bird count.

“With the sighting of the Egyptian Vulture on November 5, 2022, GWT’s Project Jataayu is now being seen as a ray of hope. This is an important and a heartening milestone for this project.” (HT Photo)

A vulture was last spotted at the Phansad Wildlife Sanctuary in 2015 which was a resident vulture. The one spotted in the first week of November this year was an Egyptian Vulture, an endangered species.

“As per The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Egyptian Vulture is an endangered species. Since we’ve spotted this, we assume resident vultures will soon follow,” assistant conservator forest, Nandkishor Kupte said.

In 2010, forest department had started the first of its kinds ‘vulture restaurant’ at Phansad to conserve the vultures. But with the last one spotted in 2015, the ‘restaurant’ was not maintained.

“In 2021, December, GWT joined us and took it up on them to provide the caracass to the ‘restaurant’,” Kupte added. GWT has been working with Thane Wildlife Division on the conservation of vultures.

In December 2021, GWT started a project titled ‘Project Jataayu’ for the revival of the lost vulture species of Phansad Wildlife Sanctuary. In the last 11 months, the GWT team has visited 275 Grampanchayats and Nagar Parishads in seven talukas of the Raigad district and also delivered 13 carcasses to the ‘restaurants’ in hope of attracting the lost vultures. The last carcass was dropped on November 2.

“With the sighting of the Egyptian Vulture on November 5, 2022, GWT’s Project Jataayu is now being seen as a ray of hope. This is an important and a heartening milestone for this project. GWT along with the forest department are now hoping to welcome a committee of vultures at the Vulture Restaurant,” Nikhil Bhople, founder and managing trustee, GWT, said.

According to Bhople, who is a bird scientist, Egyptian Vulture is a winter visitor bird. “It used to be sighted quite often around 20 years back but now it is more of a winter-visitor bird,” Bhople said.

Sunjay Monga, a naturalist and a bird-watcher based out of Mumbai, said, “Egyptian vultures are more commonly spotted at dry areas. Sighting them in Konkan belt is very uncommon. It is more common in states like Gujarat and Rajasthan.”

After the three-day event of counting the birds, the team found 152 species of birds, 20 species of mammals, 29 species of reptiles (including 20 species of just snakes), 16 species of amphibians, 70 species of butterflies, 17 species of odonates, 20 species of arachnids, 17 species of intertidal and shore biodiversity.