Revision as of 15:07, 11 October 2020

Egyptian vultures

Breeding, state-wise

Patiala university campus, Punjab

Vikas Vasudeva, Birding enthusiasts delighted to see them breeding in a human habitat, July 17, 2017: The Hindu

Safe haven for endangered Egyptian vultures

Breeding of the rare and threatened Egyptian vultures in a human habitat at the Punjabi University campus in Patiala has come as a pleasant surprise for birding enthusiasts.

“It is nothing short of a surprise, though a pleasant one, that the Egyptian vulture is successfully breeding within a human habitation in Punjab and, more importantly, has become a resident species,” T.K. Roy, an ecologist and Delhi State coordinator at the Asian Waterbird Census, told The Hindu .

‘Endangered’ red list

The Egyptian vulture ( Neophron percnopterus ), one among the globally threatened vulture species found in India, is classified under the ‘Endangered’ (EN) red list of the International Union for Conversation of Nature (IUCN). The species is popularly known as safed giddh (white vulture) in Hindi.

According to BirdLife International, a global partnership of organisations working for the conservation of birds, the present global breeding population of the Egyptian vulture is estimated to be 12,000 to 38,000 individuals.

“This scavenger has found an undisturbed and safe roosting space here on the campus and hence it is breeding successfully. Within a two-year-plus period, between summer-monsoon 2015 and summer-monsoon 2017, its population has increased from one breeding pair to eight individuals at present,” said Mr. Roy, who recently visited the campus.

Largest colony

Dr. Onkar Singh Brraich, Assistant Professor with the Department of Zoology in Punjabi University, said that very few colonies of Egyptian vultures are left in Punjab, and the largest colony of the bird has been spotted near Ropar, on a site where carcasses of dead animals are dumped.

“We are fortunate that the bird is successfully breeding here. Employees are also well aware and they also help us in their conservation. Recently, one of the juvenile birds had accidentally fallen on the ground and it was safely rehabilitated to its nest. In the campus, one pair breeds on the top of observatory building and another is on the roof of one building, under the water tank,” he said.

Feed on carcasses

Egyptian vultures usually build their nests on the cliffs of mountains, roofs of buildings and on tree-tops. The species rarely hunt its food — the birds mostly feed on dead carcasses of animals, birds and reptiles. They eat eggs and sometimes, in the absence of animal carcasses, switch over to household solid waste like rotten fruits and vegetables.

Himalayan vultures

Found in

Chambal

Faiz Siddiqui, New nest? Himalayan vultures found in Chambal, June 18, 2017: The Times of India

Good news for wildlife lovers: the Chambal region could be home to the endangered bird of prey , the Himalayan vulture. The UP forest department rescued a baby Himalayan griffon, also known as the Himalayan vulture, from Lavedi area of the Chambal region, months after an adult bird was found in Bakewar.

Ornithologists are now exploring the possible nesting places of the bird in the dry landscape of Chambal.

Etawah forest officer Vivekanand Dubey said photographs of both the birds were sent to ornithologists across the country to confirm the species of the two birds, said Dubey . He added that the Himalayan vulture rescued from Lavedi on June 6 was six months old.

“The juvenile vulture was found at Mahatma Gandhi Inter College in Lavedi in a critical condition... It is now getting well. We feed it 250g of goat meat daily,“ Dubey said.

The other vulture was rescued by villagers in Bakewar on December 23, 2016, but the bird died during treatment.

Environmentalist San jeev Chauhan said the sighting of both an adult and a juvenile in Chambal was “a sign of hope“. “It's impossible for a juvenile vulture to fly more than 500km to reach the plains from the nearest Himalayan ranges,“ he said.

Vultures nearly got extinct as a result of consuming carcasses of cattle given painkiller diclofenac to make them work longer hours right through the 1990s. The vultures suffered renal fail ure and fell in tens of thousands throughout the decade.

The falling numbers were particularly mourned by the Parsis, who traditionally leave the bodies of their dead on the tower of silence to be consumed by vultures.

After diclofenac was banned in 2006, a census of vultures in 2011 revealed 2,000 birds in UP alone. A good number of these were seen at Suhelwa Wildlife Sanctuary in Terai region and Kaimur in the Vindhya belt.

There were half a dozen species of vultures in UP, including oriental whitebacked; long-billed; slenderbilled; griffon; king vultures, and white scavenger.

Population

‘Vultures’ services; their declining population

‘Vultures are often misunderstood; they play a key ecological role providing society with health benefits’, April 10, 2020: The Times of India

Wildlife scientists think an unprecedented decline in India’s vulture population is spreading zoonosis (diseases from livestock to people). Deepak Apte, director, Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), a 140-yearold wildlife research organisation and India partner of Birdlife International, a global partnership of conservation organisations, talks to Taru Bahl about the role vultures play in waste disposal:

What’s the significance of vultures in preserving human life and the ecosystem?

Vultures are often misunderstood and considered lowly creatures. This is largely due to their eating habits since they feed mostly on dead animals and are therefore associated with death, making them appear sinister and full of foreboding. However, most people do not see their significance as scavengers. They play a key ecological role providing society with health benefits. Vultures formerly disposed of 10 million tonnes of rotting meat every year in India. This role has diminished with 99% decline over the last 20 years, with implications for environment, economics and human health.

India lacks facilities for incineration and sophisticated carcass processing, so slaughterhouse waste and dead livestock from farms have traditionally been dumped on the edge of towns and cities.

Relying extensively on vultures for clean-up, this work is left incomplete.

Since there are not enough vultures, there has been a 30% increase in feral dogs that feed on carcasses. As the main vector of rabies that kills an estimated 7,000 people in India every year, this is a cause of concern. Disposal of carcasses in the absence of vultures is another difficult and expensive task with many skin and bone collectors complaining that they miss their vulture-aides.

What is the current vulture population in South Asia?

Since the early 1990s, the population of South Asian vultures has been undergoing sudden collapse with heaviest impact on four of India’s nine species of vultures, namely, the three Gyps vulture species and the red-headed vulture which are now recognised as critically endangered, globally. Numbering tens of millions in India alone, the white-rumped vulture was considered the most abundant large raptor in the world, but presently, only an estimated 8,000 remain, of which 6,000 are in India. The reduction in population size of the three Gyps species was estimated, through systematic monitoring, to be between 96.8% for long-billed vulture and 99.9% for white-rumped vultures within a period of barely 15 years. These four species might soon be extinct in India and globally, since majority of the populations of all four species are found in India.

Why is the vulture population dwindling?

A major reason for the dramatic decline in Gyps vulture populations is veterinary use of the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug [NSAID] diclofenac. Its use has been banned, but illegal sale of human diclofenac for veterinary use continues to be a problem across India. Diclofenac is proven to be toxic. Other threats to vultures which are currently less important than toxic veterinary NSAIDs include accidental killing by poison baits, and collisions and electrocution by power infrastructure.

Is enough being done to reverse this damage?

The government and conservation community are well aware but a lot more needs to be done, especially in emphasising just how deadly the NSAID threat is for the vulture populations. The government, on its part, is stepping up support for key actions with breeding/ release programmes, updated national action plans and efforts by the Indian Veterinary Research Institute, amongst others. Maintaining existing vulture conservation breeding programmes, developing national reporting systems for vulture deaths with written recording and data storage protocols and pathways for immediate transportation and reliable tissue analysis are the need of the hour.

What priorities have been set by the Birdlife partnership for India?

The Birdlife partnership is working in Asia, Africa and Europe to save vultures from extinction. India has drawn upon husbandry and release expertise from Europe and North America and is at the forefront, especially with efforts to reduce potentially devastating impacts of NSAIDs, safety testing of veterinary drugs on vultures, besides pushing for implementation of bans and restrictions for toxic drugs. The Saving Asia’s Vultures from Extinction (SAVE) consortium has 24 regional and international members. In India, BNHS is partnering NGOs like Savera Trust to work on environment sustainability issues. They are overseeing and coordinating conservation, campaigning and fundraising activities to relieve the plight of South Asia’s vultures besides strengthening breeding and release programmes.

Apart from vulture preservation, what are the other birds India needs to protect?

There is an urgent need to work on conservation of grassland birds and birds like the Great Indian Bustard, Bengal Florican and Lesser Florican which are on the brink, with rapid destruction of grassland habitat across the country. Not realising the sensitivities that lie on the human-animal-environment interface will cause massive disruption, as is being seen in the case of Covid-19. We can no longer afford to ignore these linkages.

Threats

Anti-inflammatory drug- Diclofenac

Drug ban gives vultures wings

The Times of India, February 4, 2016

Species of vultures found in Tamil Nadu: some facts; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, February 4, 2016

Vultures in India; The Times of India, June 17, 2017

Oppili P 

Drug ban gives vultures wings: Ups diversity, nos.

They were natural scavengers once abundantly found across Tamil Nadu the introduction of an anti-inflammatory drug for cattle proved fatal for them. Now with the ban on the drug, the population of vultures is steadily on the rise.

Southern India is home to four species of these birds of prey . While the long billed, red-headed, white-rumped vultures are seen in the state, the Egyptian vulture which is largely found in neigh bouring Karnataka and made its first ap pearence here last year, say research ers. Estimates show there were 120 white-rumped, 22 long-billed, 20 red headed and 30 Egyptian vultures in the state in 2015.

Though there are no updated sta tistics at present, increased sightings of vultures in various parts of the state h a v e been reported in the past couple of months. A fortnight ago, Mudumalai Tiger Reserve field director Srinivas R Reddy said about 20 vultures swooped down behind their office in Theppakkadu in the Nilgiris to feed on a carcass. “We spotted a carcass of a spotted deer around a kilometre from the reception range office, when suddenly at least 20 red-headed and white-rumped vultures descended on the carcass. This clearly shows their population in the wild has increased considerably ,“ said Reddy .He added that the sighting of this large number came as a surprise to the officials.Vultures are known to be found in the areas under Nilgiris north forest division like Siriyur in Vazhaithottam and Mangalapatti in Thengumarahada and the Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve.

But the sighting is not that unexpected considering that a white-rumped vulture pair was spotted in Pulicat during Pongal by a young bird watcher Vikas Madhav while conducting a bird count. “When I was recording the birds I sighted, I saw a pair of unusual ones. When I took a closer look I identified them as white-rumped vultures,“ he said. “This is significant as it is the first ever vulture sighting in Pulicat area in the past two decades,“ said a member of the Madras Naturalists' Society , who had organised the bird count.

Secretary of the Coimbatore-based Arulagam, a vulture conservation organisation S Bharathi Dasan said last year many new sightings of vultures were reported across the state including in Tirunelveli, Tuticorin, Nagapattinam and Tiruvannamalai districts. He said the vulture conservationists have been vociferous against use of anesthetic drug, diclofenac, used to treat diseases in cattle.Feeding on the carcasses of livestock treated with the drug proved deadly for the vultures. Since the drug's ban in 2008 the birds of prey have been able to return from the brink of extinction. Subsequently , the Centre introduced ketoprophane, an alternative of diclofenac. But conservationists opposed this move too, as the new drug posed a threat to the survival of the vultures. The Centre, however, has issued an order banning the use of ketoprophane, a couple of months ago, Bharathi said.

“Earlier whenever any animal died in the wildlife, forest officials used to bury the carcass but now with the vultures coming back we leave it in the open for them to feed on,“ said the conservationist. This has helped to bring back the ecological balance and completed the food chain, said researchers.