CHITWAN, APRIL 17
The vulture breeding centre at Chitwan National Park will be closed soon.
The centre, which was established in 2008, is closing down in view of the increasing number of vultures in the wild and breeding not being impactful at the centre, park officials said.
So far, 18 vulture chicks have hatched and grown at the centre.
Now the vulture breeding programme will be carried out at Jatayu Restaurant (vulture restaurant) as the results at the centre were minimum compared to the government's investment in a period of 14 years.
CNP Chief Conservation Officer Hari Bhadra Acharya said there were only 10 vultures at the breeding centre. They were transferred to Jatayu Restaurant at Pithauli in Nawalparasi some time back. These birds will be released into the wild after keeping them in cages at the restaurant. After transfer of the 10 vultures from the centre to Jatayu Restaurant, the centre at Kasara will close down after 14 years of operation. It will be closed down by July.
Although the vultures laid eggs they could not hatch. The breeding of vulture in the wild has been emphasised after it was seen to be more effective than the breeding done artificially at the centre.
The centre was established in 2008 and the vultures there started laying eggs only from 2014. In the first five years only one egg was hatched. Acharya said not a single chick hatched from eight eggs in 2015.
Although nine chicks hatched from 15 eggs in 2016, one chick died. Six chicks were hatched from 21 eggs in 2017 while two chicks were hatched from 20 eggs in 2018. Not a single chick has been hatched since then.
Even though 19 eggs were laid in 2019 and 14 eggs in 2020, hatching was not successful.
Twelve eggs were laid last year, but none hatched.
Forty nine vultures, including those brought from outside and those hatched at the centre, have been released into the wild so far. The vultures were first released into the wild after 2017. Six were released in the first year, 12 in 2018, 13 in 2019 and 18 vultures were released this year.
Director General of the Department of National Parks Ram Chandra Kandel said emphasis had been laid on vulture conservation in the wild instead of at the centre in recent years as breeding in nature yielded better results and the number of vultures too had been increasing.
According to him, the Department is focused on conserving vultures in the wild by better managing Jatayu Restaurant.
A version of this article appears in the print on April 18, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
