Out of the nine species of vultures, four are almost on the verge of decline. It’s primarily because they are sensitive to their eating habits, changing environment, pollution, shortage of food and destruction of natural habitats
A dead vulture lies outside the Panidihing Bird Sanctuary in the Sivasagar district of Assam. In the 1980s, India was home to around 40 million vultures primarily belonging to three species – Oriental White-Backed, long-billed and slender-billed. By 2017, that number had declined to 19,000. AFP
India has diverse wildlife. According to a study, 8 per cent of wildlife diversity in the world is found in India. In terms of eating habits, one animal is connected to another. When that chain of eating habits is broken, that particular animal becomes an endangered species. There are many animals that are facing extinction. Besides change in eating habits, there are many other reasons for that — reducing forest cover, wanton killings of wild animals and the changing environment.
The vultures survive only on carcasses and are also on the verge of extinction like many other animals across the world. It is because of the speciality of its eating habits that the vultures protect nature. Their digestive system is so strong that they gulp down the rotten carcasses full of bacteria and digest it. That is the reason that they prevent many diseases from spreading.
The vultures are one of 22 species of birds that survive on carcasses and close kin of hawks. There are nine types of vultures in India. They are Oriental White, Long-build, Slender-build, Himalayan, Red-headed, Egyptian, Bearded, Santeria and Eurasian vultures. Most of the species are facing extinction.
When a pain-killer becomes a big pain
There were 40 million vultures in 1980, which used to consume 1.2 million tonnes of carcasses. Nevertheless, in the post-1990s, there was a sharp decline in their numbers. One of the reasons for their extinction was diclofenac medicine which has finished 99 per cent of vultures in the country.
Out of the nine species of vultures, four are almost on the verge of decline. The vultures are sensitive to their eating habits, changing environment, pollution, shortage of food and destruction of natural habitats.
Diclofenac is a pain-killer that provides relief to men and animals from pain and from swelling of muscles. After 72 hours of its consumption, the drug comes out through urine, and if the animal dies within 72 hours, the medicine remains in the body of that animal. When a vulture consumes that body, the medicine turns out to be poisonous for the vulture which dies because of failure of kidneys.
In 2006, the Government of India banned diclofenac medicine for treating animals. Instead of diclofenac, Meloxicam was prescribed for animals. Besides India, Nepal, Pakistan and South-East Asian countries banned the use of diclofenac injection to treat an ailing animal in 2006. Before a ban was imposed on diclofenac in 2006, the medicine was found in 10 per cent of carcasses in 2005. Nevertheless, it was found in 11 percent of carcasses in 2006.
After the ban on diclofenac, there was a survey in 2010, and it was found that 6 per cent of carcasses were found to have the impact of diclofenac. Similarly, according to another survey conducted in 2013, 4 per cent of carcasses contained the impact of the injection.
One more survey was recently conducted. It came to light that the impact of the remains of the medicine was found in 4 per cent of carcasses. According to experts, there should be a ban on the use of diclofenac injection for humans, too. As it is still used to treat humans, it is available in the market and can be used to treat animals.
The government, however, found a new way to stop its use for animals. The medicine manufacturers have started making ampoules containing three millilitres of diclofenac, because humans need three millilitres of it; whereas the animals require 15 millilitres. Ergo, getting five ampoules and using it on an animal at one go are difficult. Nonetheless, it is necessary to keep a watch on the level of the impact of that medicine in the carcasses.
Projects to preserve vultures
The government has launched a plan to protect the vultures so that they may return to their original numbers by 2030. As part of the plan, in the first phase, the number of vultures will be increased through captive breeding. In the second phase, the grown-up vultures will be released in forests.
It will be done in those places where the vultures have natural habitats and where they can breed naturally. The most endangered species of vultures have been kept at the breeding centre. The Bombay Natural History Society has set up four centres: Pinjore (Haryana), Rajabhatkhawa (West Bengal), Rani (Assam) and Kerwa (Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh).
Besides, there are vulture-breeding centres in Junagadh, Hyderabad, Bhubaneswar and Ranchi. To estimate the success of those centres, the Bombay Natural History Society conducted a census of vultures in 2007. According to that, the number of White-back vultures was 11,000, Long-build 45,000, and that of slender-build was 1,000. Another census was conducted in 2015, and it was found that the number of White-back vultures was 6,000, Long-build was 11,000, and that of Slender-build was less than 6,000.
Reasons for slow breeding
The breeding process of vultures is slow, because the vultures are very loyal to their companions. A male vulture and a female vulture live together as long as they remain on the earth. A vulture starts breeding when it attains the age of five and lays only one egg a year. The hatching process takes 50-55 days and a female vulture remains in its nest for one and a half months after a chick is born out of an egg. During that period, a female vulture takes care of its progeny. It is difficult to differentiate between female and male vultures, as they look alike.
The author retired as Director-General of Madhya Pradesh Police and also worked as an officer in the Indian Forest Service. Shrivastava who has done PhD in botany (forest ecology) has been writing articles on wildlife and environment for different national and international magazines for many years. Views expressed are personal.
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