HYDERABAD: Hyderabad might be an urbanised concrete jungle, but apparently, it is also home to a species on the verge of extinction. In a shocking finding, a juvenile white-rumped vulture was found in a dehydrated condition at Asifnagar crossroads near Mehdipatnam on Friday night. The rare bird has been rescued by the forest officials and is now under observation in the Hyderabad zoo. It may be mentioned that the species has not been sighted in the city for more than two decades now.
The incident has raised the hopes of finding a nesting site of the endangered vulture species bang in the middle of the city. It was a civil contractor named Md Abdul Nayeem who found the bird. He had spotted it on Friday night, standing near the road in a visibly poor state of health. “A few stray dogs were trying to attack it. It tried, but could not fly very high. I immediately recognized it as a vulture and gave water to the bird,” he said.
“As the vulture we rescued is a juvenile, it must not have travelled from afar. We think there might be a nesting site nearby. We will form teams and try to locate the nest. If found, it would be significant for the conservation of the species,” said Forest Department OSD (Wildlife) A Shankaran.