BNHS tagged and ringed the first Sarus Crane in Vidarbha region

File Pic

Last week a first Sarus Crane (Grus Antigone) has been tagged with a GPS-GSM tag in Gondia District of Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. The first adult Sarus Crane was captured for tagging and ringing and fitted with a GPS-GSM transmitter.

Sarus cranes in Vidabha are sporadically distributed and they shift their roosting and foraging locations based on the local conditions. BNHS scientists did a detailed assessment for capturing of Sarus Crane in Gondia District from 12 to 15 November 2024 and successfully tagged the first bird last week.

BNHS senior scientist Dr. P. Sathiyaselvam, Deputy Director & Head- BNHS Wetlands and Flyways Programme led the operation under the guidance of Director BNHS Kishor Rithe and Chief Wildlife Warden of Maharashtra Mr. Vivek Khandekar.

Dr. Sathiyaselvem shared more information on the operation. "During our assessment, we found out the roosting areas of Sarus Cranes. We also assessed the possibility of the bird capturing from probable locations. Some specific locations were finalised as the harvesting was already over at those locations."

"Entire operation was smoothly completed and the crane was released in the same location where it was captured after installing the transmitter and taking the morphometry measurements. We also ringed two other sub-adult birds, he stated further.

Barath, S Research Biologist BNHS, Mukund Dhurve Project facilitator BNHS, Expert Bird trappers Sivakumar, Kannadasan and Saras Kumar Behera Driver cum field assistant Rameshware played an important role in completing this operation.

Deputy Conservator of Forests, Gondia Pramod Panchbhai and his staff personally monitored and guided the operation on ground. Dilip Kowshik, RFO Gondia Range, Santosh Shrivastav (Round officer), Vitthal Chouhan (Forest Guard), Radheshyam Rahangdale, and Mr. Krishna Bhalavi (both Forest Chaukidar) and Sarus Mitra/Farmer Someshwar Kolhe extended all possible help and support during the tagging operation.

Kishor Rithe Director BNHS expressed thanks for receiving timely permission for capturing, tagging and colour-ringing the Sarus Crane from the Chief Wildlife Warden and the MoEF&CC Government of India. The bird has already started providing the movement data, he added further.

It is to be noted that the Hon'ble Bombay High Court, Nagpur Bench had ordered to conduct the detailed study of Sarus cranes in Vidarbha from the expert organisation BNHS and understand more about their habirar requirements and movement pattern.