The Operation Avian 2024, Jaipur was another great success. In partnership with local bird rescue and rehabilitation charity, RAKSHA Jaipur, Apollo College of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Forestry and Department of Animal Husbandry, Government of Rajasthan, we ran three days of talks and three days of hands on practicals to a variety of people involved in rescuing and rehabilitating birds injured during the kite flying of the Uttarayn Festival.

The first day was aimed at rehabilitators but a number of veterinary professionals came too. The aim was to give rehabilitators, who have the job of helping birds survive and rehabilitate from their trauma, an overview into avian care. The enthusiasm was rife, and it provided a nice introduction to the conference itself. Delegates were keen to ask questions from the team of local and international veterinary professionals and rehabilitators.

The second day was dedicated to vultures and the care of the more unusual species that delegates may come across. Our friend and colleague, Dr Percy Avari, gave the keynote speech on vultures, their demise and how delegates could help their recovery. It was a chance to meet two of his colleagues, Dr Shiwani Tandel and Dr Amrita Deb, who have agreed to be part of a group building avian medicine expertise to support the vulture recovery programme in India.

The Avian Medicine and Surgery Workshop was two days of lectures and practical sessions at the Apollo College of Veterinary Medicine. Sessions ranged from Avian Anaesthesia with Matthew Rendle RVN and Avian Soft Tissue Surgery with Dr Stefan Harsch, to Disease Management and Biosecurity with Dr Antonia Gardner and Hygiene and Best Practice with Dr Rakesh Mishra. We were extremely lucky to have Dr Rina Dev, one of Apollo's first graduates who now has her own Animal & Bird Clinic in Mumbai.

Our Executive Director, Olivia, was in attendance too with the aim of meeting Operation Avian partners and having discussions with everyone as to how we can use all of our networks to support the vulture recovery programme in India. She was delighted to meet Stefan who WVI has worked with for many years but they had never met. Olivia was also fortunate to meet a few of RAKSHA's supporters. Most memorable was a group of Jain ladies who, as well as being interested in the WVI/RAKSHA partnership, were very interested in her travels around India as a toddler.

Planning for Operation Avian 2025 is already underway, this time expanding the group to include some of RAKSHA's volunteers who have extremely good ideas as to how we can further achieve our collective aims.

It’s fabulous to see Operation Avian going from strength to strength – transferring vital knowledge to more vets and rehabbers working with birds, among them some of India’s most endangered species.

Kite-flying competitions during Uttarayan, which marks the end of winter, see thousands of birds entangled in carelessly discarded kite string every year. We have been helping local rescuers treat casualties since 2013. WVI's ability to support organisations like RAKSHA in this way, is down to the year on year support from the Jean Sainsbury Animal Welfare Trust.