Sharp decline in number of vultures, just 1043 left in state

Junagadh (Gujarat, India) Breeding centre starts Delivering results

The government appears to be doing precious little for improving the vulture count in the state. While their numbers have dropped to 1043 which is the lowest count registered so far, the government has so far spent only Rs. 19.70 lakhs for their conservation in the last two years.

The count recorded in 2007 was 2539 and ever since then, there has been a sharp decline. Their number was 1431 in 2008 and 1043 in May 2010.

In written reply to a question from Wakaner (Rajkot, Gujarat, India) MLA Mohammed Javed Pirzada, environment and forest minister Ganpat Vasava said that apart from an awareness campaign to conserve vultures, the government has also started a vulture breeding centre at Sakkarbaugh Zoo in Junagadh (Gujarat, India). In addition to this, the union government has banned the use of Diclofenac treatment by vets, especially on cattle.

Vasava claimed that the centre at Sakkarbaugh Zoo has started showing results in the form of a White Rumped vulture being bred successfully. Two vultures have been born there in the last 2 years.

Officials said that vulture conservation in Gujarat has got a major boost with the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) selecting Mahuva (Rajkot, Gujarat, India) and Ahmadabad among the six provisional Vulture Safe Zones (VSZ) in India.

A recent survey has indicated that the current state wide estimated population of ‘critically endangered’ Gyps vultures is 938, White- Rumped vultures is 577 and Long Billed Vultures is 361.

The survey has shown a reduction of 11.34 per cent in the population of Gyps vultures between 2010 and 2013. In 2010, there were 1,065 Gyps vultures. In the survey carried last year, 97 Egyptian vultures and eight Red headed vultures have been enumerated.

Courtesy:- Times Of India (Saturday, 23^rd February, 2013).

Decline rate of vultures in India slows

Vultures may not be the most pleasant birds to contemplate, given their not so pleasant appearance and association with death, but they serve a vital role in an Eco - system by eating dead fish.

Throughout India, vulture populations have plummeted to less than one percent of what they were a few decades age, leading to an epidemic of unseen cattle carcasses and spawning an increase in the number of rats, feral dogs and human rabies cases for dog bites.

But they may be some hope for these much maligned birds: Their decline had slowed, stopped or even reversed in some areas of the Indian Subcontinent, according to a paper published on February 7^th in the journal Science.

The birds declined largely because ranchers started giving their cattle an anti inflammatory drug called diclofenac that the birds ingested when they ate the dead cattle, paper author and Cambridge researcher Andrew Balmford said. In 2006, following revelations that diclofenac was deadly to the birds, the government of India, Pakistan and Nepal banned the use of the drug for cattle.

Bangladesh followed in 2010, and in May 2012 the four governments reached an ‘unprecedented political agreement’ to prevent unintentional poisoning of the vultures from veterinary drugs, Balmford told OurAmazingPlanet.

Many ranchers have adopted an alternative drug that is safe to vultures, Balmford said, but the increase of other drugs in concerning, especially one that’s close in structure to diclofenac, Balmford said. Restrictions on these drugs are needed, he added.

Nevertheless, vulture numbers have leveled off in many areas, and increase elsewhere.

Courtesy:- Times Of India