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Melghat and Pench Tiger Reserves Achieve High Vulture Survival Rates
M
Moneycontrol•22-09-2026, 17:20
Melghat and Pench Tiger Reserves Achieve High Vulture Survival Rates
- •Melghat and Pench Tiger Reserves are leading India's vulture reintroduction efforts, with Pench achieving a 78% survival rate.
- •29 captive-bred vultures were released across the two reserves between December 2025 and January 2026.
- •Pench's success is attributed to pre-release aviaries within prey-rich areas, allowing vultures to acclimatize before release.
- •Tiger reserves provide a crucial advantage for vultures by offering reliable access to animal carcasses from natural predator kills.
- •Melghat also shows promising results with a 60% survival rate for 15 long-billed vultures, with one traveling thousands of kilometers.
Key Questions Answered
At Pench Tiger Reserve, a group of 14 captive-bred vultures released in December 2025 recorded a 78 per cent survival rate after nine months.
Tiger reserves maintain healthy populations of predators like tigers and leopards, which leave behind natural kills that serve as reliable food sources for specialised scavengers like vultures.
India's vultures suffered a massive population decline because they fed on the carcasses of livestock treated with the veterinary drug diclofenac, which caused fatal kidney failure.
