Breeding Vultures in India
Nava Thakuria
As the vultures in the sky are missing, the government and
non-government agencies and organizations in India have come forward
to bring back the scavenging birds. The scientist and
environmentalists apprehend that after Pakistan and Nepal the vulture
population in India has declined by more than 97 per cent in the last
few years.
In India there were about 40 million vultures in early eighties, but a
survey conducted by Mumbai Natural History Society in 2007 revealed
that there remained nearly 11,000 white-backed vultures, 1000
slender-billed vultures and 44,000 long-billed vultures in the
country, said Dr Vibhu Prakash, the principal scientist for the
vulture conservation breeding programme at BNHS, Mumbai. Statistics
reveal that India has nine species of vultures in the wild including
the Oriental White-backed Vulture, Long-billed Vulture, Slender-billed
Vulture, Egyptian Vulture, Red-headed Vulture, Indian Griffon Vulture,
Himalayan Griffon, Cinereous Vulture and Bearded Vulture.
Among them, the white-backed, long-billed and slender-billed vultures
are recognized as critically endangered by the International Union for
the Conservation of Nature. More over, they are listed as Schedule I
species in the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, which is
applicable to the tiger and one-horned rhino also. Rapid urbanization,
destruction of habitat (primarily the loss of high-rise trees, where
the vultures go for nesting) and many other modern day factors (like
the rampant use of pesticides-DDT, hitting aircraft, other moving
objects in the sky, electric lines and even poisoning of vultures in
some cases) have caused the decline of vulture population in South and
Southeast Asia. In fact, the vultures were almost wiped out from
Bangladesh, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, and Singapore
by nineties. Now the countries like Pakistan, Nepal and India are
losing the vulture population drastically.
A matured vulture may weigh up to 10kgs and it needs almost half-a-kg
meat everyday. And the most common theory emerges from here that
vultures die of eating toxic meat with high percentage of diclofenac
residue.
It may be mentioned that diclofenac is a commonly used veterinary
drug. Scientists suspect that the diclofenac remains active for a
longer period in the carcasses of those treated animals, which finally
affects vultures, as they consume the meat. The drugs reportedly cause
dehydration of the vultures and soon they die of visceral gout and
even kidney failure.
A specialist claims that there is very strong evidence suggesting that
diclofenac was the cause of the mortality of vultures.
The BNHS started launching a rigorous campaign against the diclofenac
since 2003. India introduced the drugs in 1993. Following the BNHS
initiative and the long standing demand from environment and animal
protection groups, New Delhi banned the manufacture and importation of
diclofenac for veterinary purposes in 2006. Later Nepal and Pakistan
also banned it.
In Nepal, where all species including white-rumped, sender-billed and
red-headed vultures have been facing declination drastically, an
innovative way is adopted. The Bird Conservation Nepal has launched
three vulture restaurants in the Tarai areas of the country. Titled
Zatayu Restaurant for the scavengers, they collect the dying cows from
different villages and later their carcasses are offered to the
vultures.
A newsletter of Bird Conservation Nepal says that the country had
150,000 breeding pairs of white-rumped vultures nearly 15 years ago.
But the scavenging bird population has decreased by 99 percent over
the years. The NGO believes that 'the use of diclofenac on animals is
continuing in India and Nepal, despite the ban. There is always
suspicion that diclofenac made for human needs are being used for
veterinary purposes. Hence, the BNHS continues pursuing the government
to make some warnings against the veterinarian use of human
diclofenac.
The birds at Pinjore and Rajabhatkhawa were brought from different
parts of the country. But those are at Rani are largely from its own
State. Of course, 14 slender-billed vultures at Pinjore and 12
slender-billed vultures at Rajabhatkhawa have been brought from Assam.
Our objective is to have 50 birds of each of the three species at
Pinjore and Rajabhatkhawa and 50 birds each of white-backed and
long-billed vulture at Rani," revealed the official adding that
seventy five percent of the vultures are (will be) collected as
nestlings or juveniles and rest as adults or sub-adults. Mentionable
that Among Indian States, Assam , West Bengal , Rajasthan, Madhya
Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Maharahtra
have reported the natural breeding population of vultures. The Union
environment ministry has also decided to establish four additional
rescue and breeding centres in Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh), Bhopal
(Madhya Pradesh), Bhubaneshwar (Orissa) and Junagarh (Gujarat) under
the supervision of the Central Zoo Authority of India.
It is however not only the environmentalists who expressed concern at
the declining of vultures from the sky, but the Parsi people of India
remained equally worried at the development, though for a religious
reason.
The Parsis, who fled Persia-the present-day Iran-centuries back and
made India their permanent homeland, practise the religion of
Zoroastrianism. Nearly 100,000 Parsi people live in major cities like
Mumbai, Hyderabad and Kolkata.
Many Mumbai Parsis have been pursuing a plan to breed vultures in
captivity. However, Minal Shroff, the chairman of the Bombay Parsee
Panchayat, which runs the Tower of Silence, said scientists studying
the proposal shelved it, saying it will not be possible since vultures
appear to be particularly susceptible to diclofenac.
But many donot subscribe the theory of captive breeding of vultures.
Dr. Anil Kumar Chhangani, a wildlife expert from Department of
Zoology, JNV University, Jodhpur, also expressed skepticism at the
process of vulture captive breeding as there was no such expertise
among Indian organizations.
He cautioned, "Authorities must plan well while selecting the breeding
stock for captive breeding. Birds most suitable for the purpose should
be selected, rather than unsystematically and unscientifically
collecting chicks from their natural habitat, disturbing natural
breeding."
Anil, who was associated with IUCN Birds and Mammals Breeding
Specialist Group reiterated, "The captive breeding should not be the
only way to conserve vultures. Rather a countrywide rescue programme
for the vultures should be encouraged."
But Soumyadeep Datta, an environmental activist of Northeast argues
that the captive breeding of vultures would result nothing. "The
matured vultures select their partners in the wild for breeding and
the birds lay eggs in such a situation, which cannot be arranged in
the captivity. Only one egg is expected from a pair in one season. The
caring mother continues its close bond with the baby till the chick
attains maturity by five years. For any reason, vultures do not go for
mating with other species," analyzed Datta, who serves as the director
of Nature's Beckon, an Assam based environmental NGO. Datta, while
talking to this writer also asserted that the indiscriminate lifting
of chicks, as done by the BNHS people in Assam, from the nests would
only disrupt the male-female ratio of the vultures. He also claims
that unlike the other parts of India, the population of white-backed
vulture and long-billed vultures have been stable if not increased in
the State. The natural breeding process of vultures is continuing in
Assam, he claimed.
The members of Nature's Beckon suspect that the BNHS people had
started capturing vulture chick and adults in Assam since 2005. In the
long period, they must have captured nearly 100 adult and semi-adult
vultures from the State and most of them were taken to the captive
breeding centres of Haryana and West Bengal.
Maximum number of vultures was captured from Tinsukia and Dibrugarh
districts, where as Goalpara, Dhubri, Lakhimpur, Sibsagar and Jorhat
districts of Assam were also targeted by the BNHS people. Those
captured vultures were first brought to Guwahati by road and then
flown to New Delhi and once again taken road to arrive at Pinjore. On
the other hand, trapped vultures were taken to Rajabhatkhoa completely
by road from the place of capture.
Asad Rahmani, the director of BNHS, has however denied allegation that
removing some chicks from the nests would disrupt the sex ratio of
vultures. He argues that the sex of any chick/young is random (except
in some reptiles where it is temperature dependent). In every
conception, there are equal chances that it could be a male or a
female. In any large population of animals, this includes human being
also the sex ratio is statistically 1:1 (or 50:50).
Whatever their fate, it is certain that it will take a longtime to
restore the native population by captive breeding. Nita Shah, the BNHS
vulture advocacy program officer, acknowledges that vultures breed
slowly. As they give birth to only one chick a year and a baby takes
nearly four years to attain sexual maturity, she said, nobody should
hope 'for the population to be restored to its original size within
our lifetime'.
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