Vulture released in Pench Tiger Reserve, soaring near Anjaneri hills in Nashik

J132, a long-billed vulture, was released in the Pench Tiger Reserve on December 11 reached 38 km away from Anjaneri on Saturday. (Source: Bombay Natural History Society and Maharashtra forest department)

Manan Singh, a researcher at the BNHS, said the bird had certainly had two full meals en route, going by the spike observed in its activity.

14 vultures brought from Haryana

The state forest department, in collaboration with the BNHS, is working to release captive-bred vultures into the wild. The second batch of 14 vultures was brought from Pinjore in Haryana on April 24 to a pre-released aviary specially established in the Pench Tiger Reserve, which straddles Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, and the birds were trained for eight months to feed on carcasses on their own. The BNHS fitted GSM tags on these 14 birds last month so that their movements can be monitored. This includes eight white-rumped vultures (Gyps bengalensis) and five long-billed vultures (Gyps indicus).

After a structured acclimatisation period, training in natural food consumption, and surviving in the presence of wild vultures, they were released on December 11 at the hands of Chief Wildlife Warden Sreenivas Reddy and BNHS president Praveen Pardeshi.

On December 12, vultures released during earlier batches (in 2024) and these 14 birds from the 2025 batch were observed meeting and feeding together at the feeding site in Pench. From December 12 to 15, all 14 birds were seen feeding with the wild vultures in the Pench Tiger Reserve.

From the first successful release in August 2024, two birds (male and female) have already settled and are roaming in the tiger reserve.

From the current release, all eight white-rumped vultures have been feeding around Pench Aviary. One white-rumped vulture, WRV (Z33), which was under treatment, was also released on December 14. While all the WRVs are around Pench, long-billed vultures have started exploring large areas. J132 has reached Nashik, while another long-billed vulture, LBV AB1, has reached Dhanora in Gadchiroli, which was also a stronghold for vultures.

BNHS Director Kishor Rithe stated, “As the released vultures are fitted with GPS transmitters, enabling long-term monitoring of their movement, habitat use, and survival, the BNHS team is doing a scientific evaluation of release outcomes. This journey has been fascinating, and it has certainly created huge interest among the birders’ community. Close monitoring will continue to assess movement, feeding behaviour, and site use, contributing to long-term vulture conservation efforts in central India.”

The information has been shared with the chief conservators of forests in Nashik and Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar, he added.

Reddy said, “The Maharashtra forest department and the Bombay Natural History Society have also completed tagging operations in Melghat and the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve, where the vultures will be released soon.”

The release and post-release monitoring was done jointly by the BNHS–Pench Tiger Reserve field team, comprising Manan Singh Mahadev and Athira Prakash (conservation biologists, BNHS), Mohd Kasim (field assistant, BNHS), Vivek B Rajurkar (range forest officer, East Pench range), and Shrikant Dhobale (biologist, Pench Tiger Reserve, Maharashtra), along with the frontline staff under the guidance of Field Director Akshay Gajbhiye.

Talking to The Indian Express, Manan Singh Mahadev said, “This is the first time that a captive-bred bird has ventured out so far. There was one case last year. The bird was released from Tadoba and ended up travelling 3,000 km; it did a five-state tour. This is a second such case where the vulture has travelled far. That bird, however, was more aimless. It was moving around in search of food. This bird’s wandering seems more concentrated, as if it is determined to reach that place.” From this particular programme, it is the second bird that has dispersed to this level.”

Singh said he believed that this vulture has found a flock of migratory birds or wild vultures and is moving around with them. “I have never seen a bird behave this way,” he added.

“What the dispersal of this particular bird is teaching us is that the safe-zone approach needs to be expanded on a regional and national level. Safe zones are traditionally around 30,000-km areas, roughly of a 100-km radius. This shows us that we need to concentrate on entire regions,” Singh said.

Multiple birds have dispersed, but this is the most successful dispersal, Singh said. “I can recall one bird from Tadoba, another from Pench, which travelled all the way to Telangana. This bird had become too weak to fly, and we had to retrieve it.”

However, there has been no need to intervene during J132’s flight so far, Singh said.