Three-day census protocol for this grand counting of the feathery creatures includes visual surveys to catch the keen eye, carcass monitoring to gauge their appetite, and nest counts to peek into their homes. Madhya Pradesh is home to about 10,000 vultures of various species. Among them, the largest congregation of these magnificent birds resides in Panna National Park, a sanctuary also famed for its tigers. Vultures once imperilled by the deadly diclofenac, a drug found in the carcasses of treated livestock, faced a dramatic decline. By the mid-1990s, their numbers plummeted from a staggering 50 million to near extinction due to this fatal non-steroidal painkiller. The Egyptian vulture and the migratory griffon vulture, too, have seen significant, though less catastrophic, decline in numbers. The counting will now be a bi-annual affair and next will begin on April 29. The count will be conducted in the state’s rocky highlands, recording only the vulture in restful repose.
