3 min readLucknowApr 10, 2026 01:52 PM IST
First published on: Apr 8, 2026 at 05:00 PM IST
Around 2 pm on Tuesday, a villager living on the edge of the Dudhwa Tiger Reserve witnessed a rare sight of several Himalayan Griffon vultures circling his field — only to be shocked when the birds suddenly began collapsing.
By the time he alerted the forest department and teams reached the spot in Semariya village, in Gola tehsil of Lakhimpur Kheri district, 25 of the raptors were dead. Six were rescued.
Officials said the area forest officer of Bhira range, range staff and a team, including veterinary officer Dr Hemant Kumar Singh from Bijua, carried out an inspection.
Preliminary findings, they said, pointed to a suspected case of secondary poisoning. According to officials, rice laced with pesticides or some artificial chemical may have been left in the open, possibly to target stray dogs.
“We suspect the dogs ate the poisoned rice and died. And vultures which fed on their carcasses started collapsing in nearby fields,” Kirti Chaudhary, Deputy Director of the Dudhwa Tiger Reserve buffer zone and Divisional Forest Officer (North), Lakhimpur Kheri, told The Indian Express.
“A total of 25 vultures were found dead, while six were rescued in an unconscious state and given injections; four of them later flew away. The remaining birds are being treated at the range campus,” Chaudhary added.
“We have not seen such an incident in the recent past and are trying to ascertain whether there was any intention to target dogs.”
Officials said a panel has been constituted to conduct a post-mortem examination of the dead birds at the Bhira range campus, and the exact cause of death will be known only after the report is received. Viscera samples from the carcasses will be preserved and sent to the Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI), Izzatnagar, Bareilly, for detailed examination.
Chaudhary said they would be launching a special awareness drive in the area to educate local villagers against the use of harmful chemicals that might harm the animals. “We are coordinating with the district administration to sensitise the local population and prevent such incidents in the future,” she said.
The village falls in the buffer zone of the reserve, in the Padiya section under Bhira range.
The raptor (Gyps himalayensis) is listed as ‘Near Threatened’ on the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Experts have said the Himalayan Griffon vulture is not an endangered species unlike oriental white-backed, slender-billed and lone-billed vultures.
Officials said a panel has been constituted to conduct a post-mortem examination of the dead birds at the Bhira range campus. (Image enhanced using Google Gemini) 
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