First Sarus crane in Vidarbha tagged by Bombay Natural History Society

Mumbai: In a major conservation initiative, the first Sarus crane from the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra has been tagged with a GPS-GSM tag.

The Sarus crane was tagged by a team from Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) in the Gondia district.

Sarus cranes are sporadically distributed in Vidarbha and are known to shift their roosting and foraging locations based on the local conditions.

BNHS scientists did a detailed assessment for capturing a Sarus crane in Gondia district from November 12-15, 2024, and successfully tagged the first bird.

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

Speaking on the operation, Dr. Sathiyaselvem said, “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, (sic).”

The entire process was completed without any hiccups and the tagged crane was released at the same location from where it was captured after scientists installed the transmitter and took the morphometry measurements.

“We also ringed two other sub-adult birds,” Sathiyaselvam revealed.

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 Krishna Bhalavi both Forest Chaukidar and Sarus Mitra-Farmer Someshwar Kolhe extended all possible help and support during the tagging operation.

“The bird has already started providing the movement data,” said Rithe.

The Bombay High Court’s Nagpur bench had ordered a detailed study of Sarus cranes in Vidarbha by BNHS to understand more about their habitat requirements and movement pattern.