Vultures and us by Vridhi

Vultures and us by Vridhi

It was Sun the 20^th of Aug 2016 that bird watchers G. Parameswaran (Shiva sir), R. Sivashankar, Sharang Satish and yours truly R. Vridhi set out on a trip to Gandhavayal located near Sirumugai in Coimbatore district. This riparian corridor close to the Bhavanisagar dam’s catchment area has agricultural plantations on one side and reserve forest on the other. None of us had absolutely any idea of the wonderful surprise that was waiting to unfold that day. Even the weather, though high on the humidity scale was almost picture perfect with hardly a speck of cloud in the sky.

While we were bird watching, Shiva sir saw some huge raptors circling way up in the sky, which he immediately identified as vultures. Sharang who was standing nearby, swiftly swing into action and took some photographs; one of which was of the extremely uncommon Red-headed Vulture (Sarcogyps calvus). While we were stunned with delight at this finding, more and more vultures were soon sighted overhead. R. Sivashankar, my future husband and Sharang went all out to take as many images as possible of these amazing raptors. When the photographic processing was done, we were delighted with the fact that in addition to the already seen Red-headed Vulture, all age classes of the more numerous White-rumped Vulture (Gyps bengalensis) and the scarcer Indian Vulture (Gyps indicus) were also captured by R. Sivashankar. Even though vultures are uncommon to rare residents along the adjoining Moyar river valley, their sighting in this area of the Coimbatore is an extraordinary event.

The vultures are much larger in size when compared with other raptors and they possess,“ ….a distinctive long narrow head, heavy long bill with a naked neck” as described by Dr. Rishad Naoroji in his classic titled “Birds of Prey of the Indian Subcontinent”. Given this sightings importance, we also consulted the additional reference of “Birds of the Indian Subcontinent” by Grimmett et al to confirm our the accuracy. The birds seen during the entire day trip was also entered in ebird (https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S31195641). Since this was an extraordinary occurrence, we were also featured in the Hindu under the title “Three times lucky” (https://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/Three-times-lucky/article14596423.ece).

In conclusion, I would like to add that the vulture population, in general, has declined in India due to various reasons, which run the gamut from habitat loss and associated prey scarcity to chemical poisoning. In particular, the Gyps vultures like White-rumped and Indian Vulture populations were adversely impacted by the use of the chemical “Diclofenac” and subsequently their actual numbers greatly reduced. I would also like to add that were it not for the team effort from all of us, which included sighting, photographing and record keeping, in the latter in which yours truly also played a part, the authentication of this sighting would not have been possible.

R. Vridhi.