RAHIM YAR KHAN           -          Citizens captured a rare white-backed vulture when it landed in a field near Gharibabad locality of Khanpur here the other day.

A citizen informed that he captured the white-backed vulture, a rare and endangered specie of vulture family, with help of three other persons when it was sitting in the field due to dense fog in the morning.

After sighting the citizens, the vulture tried to take flight but the rare vulture fell prey to the citizens due to its long features.

Residents captured it alive and handed it over to the wildlife department. District Wildlife Officer Asim Kamran said that the captured bird was shifted to RY Khand Wildlife Park and kept in a cage. He said that it is an oriental white-backed vulture and its zoological name was Gyps Africanus.

He informed that there are eight species of vulture in Pakistan and it is one of them which is critically endangered. He said the natural scavenging bird of ecosystems has a significant role in environment and it is depended on the carcases of animals and mostly flies in the desert.

He said that in past, this bird would be a common sight in Pakistan, India and neighbouring countries but due to use of Diclofenic potassium and sodium injections in animals, vultures kidneys and liver were affected and they immediately died.

He said that 99pc of species had become extinct but India has imposed a ban on use of Diclofenic Potassium since 2006 but in Pakistan the medicine has been in use.

Kamran further pointed out that the International Union of Conservation of Nature has declared it endangered in Pakistan but Punjab Wildlife department has started a project at Changa Manga for its conservation and this vulture will be shifted there soon.