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Himalayan griffon vulture

  • Posted By
    10Pointer
  • Categories
    Environment
  • Published
    17th Dec, 2020

Himalayan griffon vulture, a rare and largest bird native to the Himalayas, has been sighted for the first time at the Point Calimere Wildlife and Bird Sanctuary.

Context

  • Himalayan griffon vulture, a rare and largest bird native to the Himalayas, has been sighted for the first time at the Point Calimere Wildlife and Bird Sanctuary.

What is important about Himalayan griffon vulture?

  • The vulture is listed as “near threatened” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.
  • It lives mainly in the higher regions of the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau at the elevation of above 1500 metres.
  • It could be a brief migration stay for the vulture.
  • Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan,Nepal, Bhutan to western China and Mongolia are the other places of its occurrence.

What is the main threat?

  • Himalayan vultures are susceptible to toxicity induced by diclofenac, a drug whose residues are found in domestic animal carcasses. 

Point Calimere Wildlife and Bird Sanctuary (PCWBS) 

  • It is a protected area in Tamil Nadu, South India along the Palk Strait where it meets the Bay of Bengal at Point Calimere at the southeastern tip of Nagapattinam District.
  • The sanctuary was created in 1967 for conservation of the least concern blackbuck antelope, an endemic mammal species of India.
  • It is famous for large congregations of waterbirds, especially greater flamingos.

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