Himalayan vulture loses battle for life

The rare Himalayan vulture, rescued from an abandoned house at Jalalia village near Lawacherra forest in Sreemangal, died at Lawacherra Wildlife Rescue Centre in Kamalganj upazila under the district on Tuesday night.

"The vulture was put under treatment at the Lawacherra centre after a villager captured it with injuries in wings on Sunday. But it could not be saved," said Tabibur Rahman, assistant conservator of Wildlife Management and Nature Conservation Division in Moulvibazar.

 "A Himalayan vulture usually weighs 15 to 20 kg and its wingspan measures 6 to 7 feet. But the rescued one was only six kg as it had not eaten enough for a long time," he said.

The bird might have come foraging, said Abdul Karim Kim, general secretary of Bangladesh Paribesh Andolon's Sylhet chapter.

"Entrance of wildlife to localities indicates a serious degradation of their habitats in the nature. We should think about the ecological health of the forests," he added.

Wildlife researcher Tania Khan said, "The Himalayan vulture is not sighted often in our country. It lives in the Himalayas, Bhutan, Tibet, China and some other regions in the north. However, the rare species bird flies long distances."