The Himalayan Griffon vulture is a 'near threatened' bird
With most vulture species going extinct in the country, a rare white vulture was captured by locals in Uttar Pradesh's Kanpur on Sunday. According to a report by news agency ANI, a rare Himalayan Griffon Vulture was captured in Eidgah cemetery of Kanpur's Colonelganj. It had reportedly been in the area for almost a week.
A local told ANI, "The vulture had been here for a week. We tried to catch it but didn't succeed. Finally, we captured it when it came down." Soon after, the forest department was alerted of the same and the vulture was handed over to them.
ANI also shared a video showing locals holding the distressed bird and carelessly spreading its wings in order to exhibit it in front of cameras. A number of astonished locals also gathered there to catch a glimpse of the rare bird and click pictures with it. The wings of this vulture are said to be about five feet.
Watch the video here:
The Himalayan Griffon vulture is a 'near threatened' bird found mostly in the Himalayas of the Tibetan plateau. Four of the nine vulture species in India also fall under the 'Critically Endangered' category in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The vultures are also listed in the Schedule-I of the Indian Wildlife Protection Act (1972) which is the highest category of protection for Wildlife in the country.
According to a PTI report, the population of vultures in the Indian subcontinent crashed during the 1990s. The vulture population fell more than 99 per cent since the 1990s due to the use of a veterinary anti-inflammatory drug, diclofenac, according to a National Geographic report. The medicine causes fatal kidney failure in vultures that eat the carcasses of treated cows.
Additional threats to vultures include other accidental and intentional poisonings, electrocution by power lines, habitat changes and the removal of carcasses, which deprives them of food.