South Mumbai: Rescued vulture taken to church, activists fume

Wildlife activists are seemingly upset with the fact that in a complete violation of the Wildlife Protection Act, a rescued vulture which was being fostered by the Fort-based D'souza family for several months, was carried to The Evangelist Church at Ballard Estate to be the part of a religious ceremony. The incident occurred a day before the vulture's scheduled release in Nashik.

On Wednesday Sunish Kunju, Wildlife Warden of Mumbai and founder of Plants Animals Welfare Society (PAWS), Mumbai wrote a letter to the forest department seeking inquiry in the matter.

Kunju said that the vulture — a critically endangered bird, which is protected under Schedule I of Wildlife Protection Act (1972) — was taken to St John Evangelist Church at Ballard Pier to be blessed. "The caretakers of the bird should have realised that it's not a pet that can be simply carried around for a religious ceremony. It's a huge bird. With a lot of people gathering to click a picture of the bird, there was a risk of the bird or someone from the crowd being injured. Also, the D'souza family did not take permission from the forest department before transporting the bird," said Kunju, adding he was surprised that on Wednesday the vulture was directly released in the wild after eight months of captivity.

Meanwhile, the Thane forest department said that the vulture that was found dehydrated and injured at Reay Road has been released on Wednesday morning only after checking its flight and health. "We have a team monitoring the bird. The area is populated by vultures and has a good number of empty nests that can be taken up by this vulture," said Dr Jitendra Ramgaonkar.

He said that that forest department got to know about the incident after receiving complaints about it. "We are carrying out a thorough inquiry into the matter," said Ramgaonkar.