Most endangered vulture breed ready to fledge

NEW DELHI: One of the world's best conservation stories is being scripted at a wildlife Centre in Haryana's Pinjore, where a slender-billed vulture nestling, a rare species, has for the first time hatched in captivity and is ready to fledge.

"The nestling at Pinjore is about five-month-old and is ready to fledge while the nestling at Rajabhatkhawa in West Bengal has already fledged.

"The eggs hatched after an incubation period of 55-56 days. Two pairs had laid eggs at each of the centres but only one hatched at both the centres," B G Deshmukh, President of a wildlife group, Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) which is running the centres said.

The chicks will be released in wild once they mature. Slender-billed vulture is perhaps the most endangered vulture in the world with less than 1,000 birds left in the wild, prompting the BNHS to take up their breeding programme in captivity in Rani Centre near Guwahati in Assam besides Pinjore and Rajabhatkhawa with the help of the respective state governments and Union environment ministry. Deshmukh adds, "The hatching of Slender-billed nestling has given us hopes of saving this species from extinction."

This species has almost disappeared from most parts of its range north of Indo-Gangetic plains from Himachal Pradesh to Assam. It is now mostly found in small numbers in Assam.