Arey O Sambha, Make Way For Vultures! Sholay’s Ramgarh May Soon Have A Breeding Centre For The Birds

Not many know that the region where the cult Hindi film Sholay was shot in Ramanagara of Karnataka is also home to the country’s only vulture sanctuary -- the Ramadevarabetta Vulture Sanctuary -- set up in 2012.

And in order to save the endangered vultures from extinction, the forest department has now sought to have a vulture breeding centre at the same location. If this proposal sees the light of day, the state will have its own breeding centre, modelled on the vulture-breeding Pinjoru Centre at Rajasthan.

The breeding of the critically endangered long-billed variety in the wild has not been productive in recent years. And so the forest department has sought to set up a breeding centre to ensure that the number of vultures does not decline further.

If the proposal is approved, the forest department would like to set up a breeding centre at Bannerghatta and a releasing centre at Ramadevarabetta.

However, there are some that seek to have the breeding centre around the Ramadevarabetta peak itself as a lot of vultures migrate from across the country and the world to the region.

The area around the peak of Ramadevarabetta was declared a vulture sanctuary as it was the only place that the long-billed vultures and the white-backed vultures visited for several decades. However, even with the sanctuary, the vulture population has fallen drastically, coming close to extinction.

As per reports, 97 per cent of the long-billed variety and 99 per cent of the Egyptian vultures have disappeared over the years. And a reduction in their numbers is being seen as having various ecological consequences. This has led to the government earmarking a total of 346.41 hectares as a protected area for the vultures.

In 2017, the central government declared the region as an eco-sensitive zone. But despite these measures, since there seems to be no improvement in the number of vultures, the present proposal for a breeding centre is being seen as crucial to the very existence of the species.

The number of long-billed vultures, which was 16 five years ago, has come down to five as per the last count. Nesting is said to have failed in the last three years owing to a variety of reasons, and hence the department now seeks to set up a breeding centre to save the last of these mighty-winged creatures.