Positive News From India: Vulture Population On The Rise At Mudumalai Tiger Reserve!

Nilgiri is one of the thirty eight districts in the southern state of Tamil Nadu in India, a thriving and exhilarating cultural potpourri of colours, customs and traditions in one of the world’s largest democracies. But among the scenic attractions in the land marked by a dominant political climate and its every changing vagaries is the famous Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, which is nestled in the scenic and luscious green escapades of the Nilgiri forests. Spread over an area of 2565 square kilometres, the Nilgiris are, without a speck of doubt, considered among the most scenic and charming eye-pleasing sites that exist in all of India.

Hundreds travel each year down south to revel in the jungles, camp amid waterfalls, base themselves amid the beautiful noise of the forests, a sound that no grammy award winning album can provide anywhere on the earth.

And tucked in the heart of this forest is the famous Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, a captivating sight to spot the most enigmatic creature in all of the jungle or for that matter, in any Indian jungle.

Though, that being said, what’s recently stemmed from the picturesque Mudumali Tiger reserve is some enthralling information not on the tiger albeit concerning a pretty daunting winged creature that takes to the skies with the same intrepid enthusiasm as the shark takes to the seas.

And in what can be called positive news from around the country, it appears that the vulture population is on the rise where it comes to the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve in India.

Since the last several months, plenty of researchers have tightened their shoe strings, carried notepads and high definition cameras to head to the Nilgiris covering a plethora of creatures found in one of the most pleasing of all nature’s pleasantries bestowed upon India.

What they uncovered was positive news from tiger territory amid a climate marred by negativity all thanks to the wretched COVID 19 pandemic.

And as per official sources, it appears that researchers in the Nilgiri-bound Mudumalai Tiger Reserve had no fewer than 1602 encounters with the vultures.

The enigmatic winged bird with a sharp, destructive beak; a bird of prey that you’d pray not to become a target of has evidenced a dip in its population, with the country worrying about its imminent future.

Also Read: Have You Wondered About The Bird Population Of India?

At such a time, news that the vulture population has been on the rise is nothing shy of ecstatic, if not the greatest news from around the country and serves notice to all of us Indians who undermine the wildlife and the hidden charms that spending time in the nature serves!

That being told, the famous Print daily The Hindu had the following observations to make with regards the increasing vulture population in the region:

A recent study of the population of vultures in the Sigur plateau has found that the population of all four resident vulture species have seemingly been on the rise over the past few years.

In a study titled Population status and seasonal distribution of vultures in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, published in the Journal of Science and Technology, authors S. Manigandan, P. Kannan, H. Byju, S. Bharathidasan and B. Ramakrishnan recorded vulture sightings between January and October of 2018, along 61 km of roads through the reserve.

The roads pass through key vulture habitats in Siriyur, Vazhaithottam, Masinagudi, Moyar, Theppakadu and Kakkanallah.

The researchers had 1,602 encounters with vultures, with a majority of them being with the critically-endangered white-rumped vulture (Gyps bengalensis), followed by the long-billed vulture (Gyps indicus), the red-headed vulture (Sarcogyps calvus) and the egyptian vulture (Neophron percnopterus). Though white-rumped vultures were the most frequently recorded, with as many as 1,405 encounters.