Revision as of 06:53, 17 July 2017

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

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.

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.