Vulture Facts

The crash in their population from estimated 4 crores in the early 1980s to less than a lakh by 2007 in India is unprecedented in the animal world. Outside of the oceans, vultures are the only known obligate scavengers.

• The ecological, social and cultural significance of vultures in India may be summed up as: scavenging on animal carcasses and thereby helping keep the environment clean.
• There are nine species of vultures in India out of which three have been on critically endangered list of IUCN and also listed under Schedule I of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972.
• White-rumped Vulture (Gyps bengalensis)
• Slender billed Vulture (Gyps tenuirostris)
• Indian Vulture/long-billed vulture (Gyps indicus)
• Himalayan Griffon – closely related to Indian Gyps – Near Threatened
• Egyptian Vulture – Endangered
• Red-headed vulture is on the critically endangered list of IUCN but not listed under Schedule I of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972. (Schedule IV)

Threats

A major threat to vultures is the painkiller diclofenac used by veterinarians to treat cattle.

Effects

• When vultures consume these carcasses, diclofenac enters their system, but they are unable to metabolize it.
• It results in uric acid accumulating in the birds’ blood and crystallizing around their internal organs, a condition called visceral gout.
• Accumulation of diclofenac results in gout-like symptoms such as neck drooping(Thanatosis), kidney failure and ultimately leading to death.

Aceclofenac

• Indian Veterinary Research Institute has demanded a ban on using aceclofenac in cattle.
• Aceclofenac is a veterinary painkiller.
• It metabolises into diclofenac in water buffaloes and cows which eventually threatens vulture populations in the country.

Drugs Toxic to Vulture

• Diclofenac has long been established as the prime reason for wiping out 99 percent of the vulture population in India in the 90s.
• Later two more veterinary drugs, aceclofenac and ketoprofen, were found to be toxic for vultures.
• As per the new study, nimesulide appears to act similar to diclofenac in exerting toxic effects on vultures.
• Flunixin
• Carprofen

Safe Drugs for Vultures

• Meloxicam
• Tolfenamic acid

Conservation Measures

• First Vulture Care Centre (VCC) was set up at Pinjore, Haryana in 2001. (to know the cause of decline)
• Later in 2004, the VCC was upgraded to being the first Vulture Conservation and Breeding Centres (VCBC) in India.
• At present there are nine Vulture Conservation and Breeding Centres (VCBC) in India, of which three are directly administered by Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS).
• The main objective of the VCBCs was to look after the vultures and breed them in captivity and also release them into the wild.
• The Bombay Natural History Society and the RSPB (UK) are working as part of Saving Asia’s Vultures from Extinction (SAVE).
• Every four years, they set out on a survey of epic proportions, covering 15,500km of road in 13 states across India, counting individual vultures of each of the three species.

Vulture census

• Vulture census was conducted in 2022.
• The last such census was carried out in 2015.
• The census would be conducted by scientists at the Bombay Natural History Society (a conservation NGO), along with teams from the 13 states and the MoEFCC.
• Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya.

Vulture Safe zone

• Establishment of at least one vulture-safe zone in each state for the conservation of the remnant populations in that state.
• Action Plan for Vulture Conservation 2020 – 2025
• The action plan was approved by the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) in 2020.
• An earlier one was formulated in 2006 for three years.
• The new plan has laid out strategies and actions to stem the decline in vulture population, especially of the three Gyps species:
  • Oriental white-backed vulture (Gyps bengalensis)
  • Slender-billed vulture (Gyps tenuirostris)
  • Long-billed vulture (Gyps indicus)

• This would be done through both ex-situ and in-situ conservation.
• The plan has also suggested that new veterinary non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) be tested on vultures before their commercial release.

International Efforts

• SAVE (Saving Asia’s Vultures from Extinction) – It includes fourteen organisations involved and committed to helping the vultures to date, and this number is steadily growing.
• Bombay Natural History Society works with SAVE.

International Vulture Conservation Awareness Day

The initiative is run jointly by the Birds of Prey Programme of the Endangered Wildlife Trust in South Africa and the Hawk Conservancy Trust in England.Through IVAD, both the organisation try to raise awareness about the threats that vultures are facing today and promote a coordinated international effort to publicise the conservation of vultures to a wider audience.