Rescued Cinereous Vulture in TN to be airlifted to Jodhpur on November 3

Chennai, Nov 1 (IANS) A cinereous vulture that was rescued and housed in the Udayagiri Biological park in Tamil Nadu’s Kanniyakumari will be flown to Rajasthan’s Jodhpur on November 3, and released with others of its kind near the animal carcass dumping site.The scavenger bird was earlier scheduled to be shifted by road from Kanniyakumari to Udaipur but after some officials and veterinarians opposed the move, the government dropped the idea.However, sources in the Tamil Nadu Forest Department told IANS that no airline was willing to airlift the vulture and it required much persuasion from the state Conservator of Forests, N. Padamavathe for Air India to finally agree.The vulture has already been moved from the Udayagiri park to Vandalur zoo on Monday and will be kept there for three days before it embarks on its journey to Udaipur.Kanniyakumari DFO, M. Illayaraj is accompanying the bird on Thursday during its flight to Jodhpur. The flight which is carrying the vulture will take off at 6 a.m. and will land at Jodhpur before afternoon. Sources in the Forest Department of Tamil Nadu told IANS that the Vulture would, on reaching Jodhpur, be immediately shifted to Machia Biological Park and after some time will be released at an animal carcass dumping ground, where a large number of cinereous vultures will be present.The idea of transporting the vulture by road was dropped after experts told the Tamil Nadu Forest Department that it would stress the vulture as the journey was 2,600 km and would not be safe for the bird.–IANSaal/vd