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Vulture census in UP soon

Published

4 years ago

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A census of vultures will soon be conducted in Uttar Pradesh by the Institute of Wildlife Conservation (IWC) at Lucknow University.

A workshop for forest personnel, NGO representatives and avian volunteers will be held through webinar between September 21 and 30. The aim is to train the participants for vulture mapping.

The move is a part of an effort to protect and conserve this avian species that faces the danger of extinction.

The state government has approved Rs 16 lakh for the census.

Amita Kanaujia, a professor in the department of zoology at Lucknow University who is playing a key role in the census, said, “Of the nine species of vultures in India, eight are found in Uttar Pradesh. Four have been categorised as ‘critically endangered’, one as ‘endangered’ and three ‘nearly threatened’ by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).”

Of these, the ‘Gyps Indicus’ and ‘Egyptian Vulture’ are found in Bundelkhand division and the Terai arc landscape.

Vultures, known as nature’s scavengers, once spanned the entire country.

The vultures began to dwindle rapidly in the early 1990s and this trend was evident by the two census reports of 2011 and 2015 in UP.

The decline of vultures in India is attributed to diclofenac poisoning. This anti-inflammatory drug is widely administered to cattle and the birds feed on its carcass, ingesting the drug with fatal consequences.

The fall in vulture numbers is also due to road accidents, electrocution caused by high tension electric lines, loss of habitat due to human interference and acute food scarcity.

The census will be conducted in pre-breeding and post-breeding sessions. The first session will conclude in November when the eggs hatch and chicks come out. The second phase will be completed in March next year, said Prof Kanaujia.

A GPS (global positioning system) mapping of all nests and habitats of vultures will also be done. The field teams will also review the additional threats to vultures in order to find solutions and chalk out conservation plans.

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What monkey fled with a bag containing evidence in it: Read full story

Published

3 years ago

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May 5, 2022

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The court, generally, considers a person who commit a crime and the one who destroys the evidence, as criminals in the eyes of law. But what if an animal destroys the evidence of a crime committed by a human.

In a peculiar incident in Rajasthan, a monkey fled away with the evidence collected by the police in a murder case. The stolen evidence included the murder weapon (a blood-stained knife).

The incident came to light when the police appeared before the court and they had to provide the evidence in the hearing.

The hearing was about the crime which took place in September 2016, in which a person named Shashikant Sharma died at a primary health center under Chandwaji police station. After the body was found, the deceased’s relatives blocked the Jaipur-Delhi highway, demanding an inquiry into the matter.

Following the investigation, the police had arrested Rahul Kandera and Mohanlal Kandera, residents of Chandwaji in relation to the murder. But, when the time came to produce the evidence related to the case, it was found that the police had no evidence with them because a monkey had stolen it from them.

In the court, the police said that the knife, which was the primary evidence, was also taken by the monkey. The cops informed that the evidence of the case was kept in a bag, which was being taken to the court.

The evidence bag contained the knife and 15 other important evidences. However, due to the lack of space in the malkhana, a bag full of evidence was kept under a tree, which led to the incident.

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