Ten wild white vultures, locally known as dangar gidda, have been caught, tagged and released, and eight more birds from the breeding centre were tagged and released jointly by the Government of Nepal, Bird Conservation Nepal (BCN) and other conservation organisations.
A formal release programme was organised at the Jatayu Restaurant Office in Kawasoti, Nawalparasi, on Thursday.
Speaking at the programme, Director General at the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Dr. Ram Chandra Kandel said, “We are proud to say that vulture conservation in Nepal has been well recognised all over.”
Deputy Mayor of Kawasoti Municipality Prem Shanker Mardaniya said that the local government will support vulture conservation work in whatever way they can and will also commit to allocating budget for the conservation in coming years also.
DB Chaudhary, Coordinator, Jatayu Restaurant Management Committee, said the local community has and will always walk together for vulture conservation and is proud to further release captive vultures from this vulture-safe feeding site ensuring they can provide safe food for these important birds.
After the programme, the delegation walked to the release site, where the DG Kandel pulled the rope from beside the hide, opening the release aviary door.
A buffalo carcass was placed outside the feeding site close to the aviary door to attract wild vultures and encourage the captive birds outside the release aviary.
Within five minutes, the first captive bird flew through the open gate and started feeding with wild birds, according to BCN.
Ankit Bilash Joshi, Vulture Conservation Programme Manager at BCN and Ishana Thapa, chief executive officer at BCN, highlighted the vulture conservation work over two decades in Nepal has shown significant progress, also monitoring of the satellite-tagged birds has helped better understand their survival and mortality factors, giving us confidence that it is fast time to declare the true Vulture Safe Zone (VSZ).
Source : TRN,
