Himalayan vulture rescued in Gaibandha
A vulture of the Himalayan griffon species has been rescued from Gaibandha’s Palashbari upazila. Members of Gaibandha Government College unit of the environmentalist student organisation ‘TEER’ rescued the vulture on Saturday.
More than 15 tired and sick Himalayan griffons have been rescued from different parts of the country. About a hundred such vultures arrive every year while more or less 40 of them fall sick.
The Team for Energy and Environmental Research (TEER) members said that residents of Matherhat Hashonerpara village in Palashbari upazila noticed some Himalayan vultures in the sky on Friday evening.
Exhausted, one of those vultures had perched on top of a tree in the village. Later, it came down in search of food. The villagers caught and caged it.
Upon receiving the news, members of TEER Gaibandha Government College unit took a forest department official with them to rescue the vulture from Matherhat Hashonerpara village on Saturday morning.
Four people including president of TEER Gaibandha Government College unit Zahid Raihan, executive committee member Jakaria islam, member Rashedul Islam took part in the rescue mission.
Zahid Raihan told Prothom Alo that the vulture had been sent to the vulture care centre of Singra National Park on Saturday afternoon.
Besides, awareness raising leaflets have been circulated in the area in this regard, on the advice of Rifat Hasan, president of TEER central committee.
An advisor to TEER and principal of Gaibandgha government college Md Khalilur Rahman told Prothom Alo, these are massive birds with large wings are Nature's cleaners. T
These sharp-eyed scavengers devour the corpses of diseased animals and that save other animals from various infectious diseases, he added.
Seven types of vultures used to be found in Bangladesh. The red-headed vulture also known as Asian king vulture is now extinct.
The numbers of Indian vultures and slender-billed vultures, usual to the country, are also quite low. According to IUCN records, only about 260 Indian vultures are left in the country.
Apart from that, three types of migrant vultures are noticed in Bangladesh. The Himalayan griffons are a notable one among them.
Sarwar Alam, chief researcher of the vulture conservation project, taken by IUCN, the association of the organisations working in the field of nature conservation told Prothom Alo, Himalayan griffons travel towards the plains during November-December for the cold and blizzards on the Himalayans. They return there again in March.
The vultures have to travel about a thousand kilometers. Upon arriving in the plains after flying for so long, they don’t even find adequate food here. Exhausted from the travelling, they can be found lying on the land here and there.
People connected with IUCN said, as a result of campaigning, at present local people inform the volunteers of TEER whenever they find any sick vultures anywhere in the northern region. After rescue and first aid, the volunteers hand those vultures over to the vulture rescue and care centre.
Sarwar Alam said that a Himalayan griffon can weigh up to 13 kilograms. But, when they are found in Bangladesh they usually have a weight of four to five kilograms.
Their main food source is the animal corpses. Vultures are facing the threat of existentance in the country for the scarcity of food and habitat , he added.