A historic flight

Winter guests: wild Siberian c (Credit: Bholu Khan)BIRD-LOVERS will after all have a chance
to gather more information about the
highly, endangered wild Siberian
cranes. After dragging its feet over the
rnatter, the ministry of environment
and forests (MEF) recently permitted
conservationists to install a satellite transmitter on the back of one of the
cranes spending their winter at the
Keoladeo Ghana National Park near
Bharatpur, Rajasthan. These experiments will be the first of their kind in
conservation history.

The satellite transmitter would
trace the migratory route of the
cranes and collect details about their
habitats and breeding ranges. When
the cranes fly back to their Siberian
homes, signals beamed from the transmitter would be received in
Japan through the Argos satellite. Experts from India and, abroad
have been trying to persuade the MEF to allow
transmitter experiments
since the cranes arrived in
the Ghana park on
February 1. The birds have
come after a gap of two
years and are expected to
leave the, park some time
this month.