A State Level Committee has been constituted to establish an institutional framework for the effective conservation of vultures that are nearly extinct in the country in the early 21st century.
A State Level Committee has been constituted to establish an institutional framework for the effective conservation of vultures that are nearly extinct in the country in the early 21st century.
Concerned over the 96% decline in India’s vulture population between 1993 and 2003, the central government created two action plans to protect the species at the national level – the first in 2006 and the ongoing plan for 2020-2025. One of the key action points in this nationwide plan is the formation of state level committees to save the critically endangered population of vultures.
Acting on this, the Tamil Nadu government constituted a state-level committee to set up an institutional framework for the effective conservation of vultures, which were nearly extinct in the country by the beginning of the 21st century. A formal order was issued on Wednesday by Supriya Sahu, Additional Chief Secretary, Environment, Climate Change and Forest Department.
In Tamil Nadu, there are four species of vultures – the oriental white-backed vulture, the long-billed vulture, the red-headed vulture and the Egyptian vulture. “The first three are resident and can be found in the Nilgiris and Sathyamangalam landscapes,” said S Bharathidasan, secretary of Arulagam, which works for vulture conservation. “There is evidence of breeding of Egyptian vultures at only one site in Dharmapuri,” he said.
A white-backed vulture being trained to fly at Sirur near Mudumalai Tiger Reserve. file | photo credit: M Satyamurthy
Apart from senior officers of the forest department, the committee also has other experts, including K.K. of Wildlife Institute of India. Ramesh, S.S. Muraleedharan, Vibhu Prakash of the Bombay Natural History Society and two locals involved in the conservation. – B Ramakrishnan of Government Arts College, Uthagamandalam, Sri Bharathidasan of Arulagam.
The committee, which has a two-year term, will take steps to monitor conservation and recovery of existing vulture sites and create safe zones for mapping vulture populations across the state. This will work to eliminate the use of poisonous veterinary drugs, the main cause of death of vultures.
“Tamil Nadu is a pioneer. This led to the banning of two drugs, which long ago led to the death of vultures,” said Mr. Bharathidasan. The state’s vulture population has since stabilized and increased slightly.
Sri Ramakrishnan also agrees that the population continues to grow. They began studying vulture populations in the Nilgiris landscape from 2010. “Even then, veterinarians in the Nilgiris and Erode were not prescribing diclofenac,” he recalls. Vulture deaths were first reported after the species was exposed to the drug, when birds consumed carcasses of animals treated with diclofenac for diseases.
Both experts agree that food availability is a major factor in determining vulture populations. “After the formation of Tiger Reserves in the Nilgiris landscape” [including Karnataka’s reserves]There has been an increase in the number of tigers and, therefore, the population of vultures that scavenge, Mr. Ramakrishnan said.
Vultures play an extremely important role as nature’s cleaners in keeping the environment clean. Their social and ecological importance cannot be underestimated, Mr. Sahu said, adding that “this is the last level of scavengers.”
“They eat bones too. even if he ingested anthrax [contaminated] carcasses, it will not be affected,” said Mr. Ramakrishnan. According to him, vultures in the Nilgiris landscape constitute the southernmost population of birds in India. Both researchers and activists say that the poisoning of cattle carcasses is a matter of concern. Sri Ramakrishnan’s team analyzed 47 bodies over the past ten years and found that two-three had been poisoned.
Prevention of poisoning of animal carcasses, the staple food of vultures, is also one of the responsibilities of the newly formed committee.