Visitors to Central India from the bird kingdom during
winter starts with Greenish warbler, a tiny bird with a chirpy relentless call,
flittering on twigs and branches; it is said that when they come, the rains begin
to recede in the North East. Followed by Grey wagtail, White wagtails and
Forest wagtails, these visitors throng from northern Asia, Himalayas and its
foothills and then the other warblers like Clamorous reed, Western crowned,
Chiffchaff and the Chats.
Perhaps the smaller visitors come with mostly an intention
to feed. The largest of the predatory birds in India has another purpose here
in the beautiful gorges, cliffs, crags and rocks of dense green shades of
Central India. The Himalayan Griffon and
the Eurasian Griffon that belong to the Vultures group, they are here with
an intention; breed.
I am now at Panna; a sanctum with cascading waterfalls,
great gorges, beautiful River Karnavati, hilly tracks, rocks like kimberlitic,
schist, granite, slates and conglomerates so on. The immortal entities have
posed their best in this National Park and what would that be by the living! To
begin, the history of rulers who once lived here, The Chattrasal of Panna who
had a peaceful reign and spiritual thoughts, The Bundelkhand dynasty that
carved Khajuraho temples, the local myths and lores and The tigers of Panna
that once had a fame of massiveness and living free until they were extinct
from here though presaged. All those souls might still be living with the beauty
of this park, hence they make it composed.
Today, after successful relocation of five Tigers from
Bandhavgarh and Kanha, the Tigers are resuming to their territories to rule
once again. So far, successfully three Tigresses have bred and the population
stands at 12-14 including the Panna-born cubs and sub-adults. The bonus is
predations that deliver the carcasses to those mighty voyagers, Griffons and
the resident vultures.
Here is a short preface of vulture population’s slump, due to a
pain killer given to cattle called Diclofenac
in turn fed by vultures caused renal failure in them, resulting a 99% drop in
the Gyps species of vultures particularly
in the last 16 years. The eastern Indian populations of the species are extinct,
the sky lords that used to soar the cities and towns once have plummeted down
and distributed in a few pockets across the sub-continent; Panna is one of the
pocket we wear!
It is a ground frosted morning at Panna, the
dew on the grass turned into white crystals and the gorge at Dundhwa smoked
some fog. I drove down by the River Karnavati and I was astounded by hundreds
of vultures. On a stump had perched about 15 vultures; Himalayan Griffon and
Eurasian Griffons waiting for the 20-months old Tiger sub-adult of relocated
tigress called T1. It was my second sight of Himalayan Griffon at Panna, the
first in flight being at Dundhwa.
These vultures bearing a weight of 8 to 10 kilos flying
great altitude have arrived during their breeding season which is winter, only
to lay one egg that hatches in about 3 months by February. Along with them,
Eurasian Griffon again a large species of Gyps
species is here too. The vultures that wait for the Tiger to leave his prize
have a hierarchy in feeding, crows and other bearded vultures feast the first
while these Griffons are exclusively carrion eaters, mostly fresh meat.
Like other vultures, their talons and tarsus are built only to grip and
they are pink without feathers, that keeps them clean
from their nasty table manners. Being voracious and aggressive feeders
especially when in great numbers are only consoled by Cinereous vultures
which are a slightly larger and the largest.
The beautifully engineered wings spanning between 2.5 and 3 meters
have an efficient body ratio to dive down when they have spotted carrion by their powerful eyes. The gravitation that pulls them down while flying on thermals
will be transformed to a force that speeds them up; simply by maneuvering the
wings to change the direction of pull. What
surprises is how they take the air pressures at such altitudes, no wonder it is Rüppell's Griffon from central Africa that flies the highest among birds, 11.7 kilometers high!
While all those animals that die in a jungle attains salvation even if they did not devote to a shrine or a saint, they have vultures! The vultures feed on tissues
and bones, as Buddhism quotes on reincarnation that souls could not be born
into new bodies unless the old ones perish completely. Such were the practices
of Tibetan folklore; when an individual dies, the Himalayan Griffons were to
devour them as it was hard to bury bodies in the frozen rocks of Tibet.
It is now the turn for the vultures to perish without a
salvation by another due to various human practices like, modern technology
over ploughs, lack of cattle grazing lands, aviation, poisoning of carcasses, NSAIDs like Diclofenac, mining of rocks and change of agricultural practices as well as a few community ritual
practices like the Parsi who are not finding enough vultures to decompose.
Panna now has sky lords surviving greatly. With a few but
quick steps taken by handful unique conservation peers. I am here with them and the voyagers hoping
for more peers to join.
