The Central government gazette notification banning the use of multi-vial dose of Diclofenac comes as a shot in the arm for conservation of vulture population. The ban restricts the production to single 3 ml dose, thereby stopping production of injectable diclofenac of larger quantities that were being used for veterinarian purposes.
Saving Asia’s Vulture’s from Extinction (SAVE), formed in 2011 has been battling for the enforcement of the ban. It campaigned long and hard and urged the pharmaceutical manufacturing companies to cease production of the larger vials to treat livestock, as 3-ml vials are more than sufficient for human use.
“The drug will therefore become more expensive and less accessible to those who might use it illegally,” says S. Bharathi Dasan, Secretary of Arulagam, an NGO involved in nature conservation, especially vultures.
Further, it could encourage people to use Meloxicam, the safer alternative, he adds.
Arulagam has been working with the Nilgiris, Coimbatore and Erode district administrations to create vulture safe zones by getting resolutions passed in gram sabhas to become Diclofenac-free habitations.
Explaining the role of vultures in an eco-system, nature conservationists say vultures act as scavengers, which play a valuable role eating animal carcasses.
They destroy pathogens, recycle nutrients and prevent contamination of water bodies.
By consuming the carcasses, they act as anti-agents of parvo, brucellosis, tuberculosis, foot and mouth, rabies and anthrax.
Of the 23 species of vultures worldwide, nine are present in India.
Four are migrant species and five are resident species. Four of the species are critically endangered, one is endangered, three are near threatened and one is of least concern as per data available with the International Union for Conservation of Nature. “Of the nine species only four are present in Tamil Nadu.”
The drug will become more expensive and less accessible to those who might
use it illegally
