2002/2003 Season: 42 Occupied nests seen of which 27 (64.3%) had large chicks by Mar 2003.
Again, we visited the exact same LBV sites and by December 2003, we located breeding activity in 54 nests. This does not reflect an increase in breeding birds but the location of additional (sub) sites that may have been missed in the 2002/2003 season. By April 2004, 26 of these had large chicks in them. Breeding success = 48.1%.
Five dead adult LBVs and one chick have been located so far. (1 in Dec-03, 1 in Mar-03, and 4 in Apr-04 [includind chick]). NB, the three dead adult LBVs were found by Mr Ragu (one of our field assistants) by the Raj Bhera Lake area in Bandhavgarh between 12th and 16th February 2004.
In addition to the 54 occupied nests found in December 03, we located a further 42 active LBV nests at Bandhavgarh during our visit in April 2004.
Comment by Anand Pendharkar:
Five nests of White backed Vulture around Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve (MP) located in Jan 2004, around 32adult white backed, around 9-10 long-billed vultures, 6-7 Scavenger Vultures;
Comment by Hashim Tyabji;
The topography of this reserve is hilly with several precipitous cliff affording several nesting sites in hundreds of ledges to the vultures. By and large these ra eused by the long-billed vultures and over the years I have not noticed any apprecialble decline in the numbers of this species in Bandhavgarh. The white-backed vulture has always had a smaller population that the Long-billed in Bandhavgarh and there has been a decline in numbers although my sense is that the population is stronger now than about 3 years ago.
