In good news for the endangered vulture, a chick bred in captivity at the Vulture Breeding and Conservation Centre at Pinjore near here has become the world’s first to survive for 55 days.The chick was on Wednesday named Vibhu in honour of Dr Vibhu Prakash, the principal scientist of the Bombay Natural History Society, which runs the centre along with the Government. Dr Prakash has been handling the project ever since its inception seven years ago. “This is the first time in history that the vultures have nested in captivity.,” said Haryana Forest Minister Kiran Chaudhary. The centre is busy celebrating as just last year, the breeding programme had suffered a setback, with another chick named Jatayu, born to the same two white-backed vultures, dying less than a month after birth. This year, while seven eggs were laid by the vultures, Vibhu was the only one born.“The chick is being fed goat carcass. We are avoiding any disturbances in the enclosures. The monitoring is being carried out by CCTVs,” said Chief Wildlife Warden, Haryana, R D Jakati. From not one vulture seven years ago, this centre today has 122 vultures caught from the wild from Haryana, Rajesthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Assam. At the same time, the celebrations are muted by pragmatism. Jatayu’s postmortem, that was conducted by Dr Andrew Cunningham of Cambridge University, had revealed nothing pathologically abnormal with the chick. “The report said the chick died as the vulture pair, that mated for the first time, was inexperienced to handle the newborn,” says Jakati.Dr Prakash hopes that with the egg-laying season beginning by the year end, there would be many more chicks.The Vulture Conservation and Breeding Programme in India is gaining momentum. The Government of India is in the process of setting up three such centres in Orissa, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.
