Mumbai: A long-billed vulture named J132 that was released in Maharashtra’s Pench Tiger Reserve earlier this month has travelled nearly 750 km in 17 days and reached close to Anjaneri hills near Trimbakeshwar in Nashik district, officials said on Sunday.
The vulture was released on December 11 as part of a conservation programme jointly run by the state forest department and the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), whose researchers said the bird reached a location about 38 kilometres from Anjaneri on December 27. It followed a route covering Nagpur, Wardha, Yavatmal, Hingoli, Washim, Buldhana, Jalna and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar districts before entering Nashik region, these researchers added. Officials said the final destination of the tracked vulture has been kept confidential to ensure its safety.
“The bird roosts in the evening, feeds in the morning and then flies to the next location. Activity data suggests it has had at least two full meals during its journey,” BNHS researcher Manan Singh said.
The vulture is part of the second batch of captively bred birds released in Pench. A total of 14 vultures were brought from Pinjore in Haryana to a specially created pre-release aviary in Pench Tiger Reserve in April 2025 and were trained for eight months to survive in the wild. These included eight white-rumped vultures and five long-billed vultures, all fitted with GPS tags to monitor their movements. After acclimatisation and training, the birds were released on December 11 by Maharashtra Chief Wildlife Warden Sreenivas Reddy and BNHS president Praveen Pardeshi. From December 12 to 15, all the released vultures were observed feeding along with wild vultures in Pench, officials said.
While the white-rumped vultures have largely remained around the Pench area, the long-billed vultures have begun exploring wider regions, they added. Apart from J132, another long-billed vulture — LBV AB 1 from the same batch has reached Dhanora in Gadchiroli district, a known vulture habitat, the officials informed.
“The released vultures are fitted with GPS transmitters, which would help in long-term scientific monitoring of movement, habitat use and survival of the released birds. The journey of J132 has generated significant interest among the birding community. Monitoring will continue to strengthen vulture conservation efforts in central India,” BNHS director Kishor Rithe said. Chief Wildlife Warden Shrinivas Reddy said similar tagging operations have also been completed in Melghat and Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserves, where vultures would be released soon.
