Alarmed at the 96% decline in India’s vulture population between 1993 and 2003, the Central government put into place two action plans to protect the species at the national level — the first in 2006 and the second, ongoing plan for 2020-2025. One of the important action points in this nationwide plan is the formation of State-level committees to save the critically endangered population of vultures.
Acting on it, the Tamil Nadu Government formed a State-level Committee to set up an institutional framework for the effective conservation of vultures, which almost went extinct in the country at the beginning of the 21st century. A formal order was issued by Supriya Sahu, Additional Chief Secretary, Environment, Climate Change and Forests, on Wednesday.
In Tamil Nadu, four species of vultures are found — the Oriental white-backed vulture, the long-billed vulture, the red-headed vulture, and the Egyptian vulture. “The first three are residents and can be found in the landscapes of the Nilgiris and Sathyamangalam,” S. Bharathidasan, secretary of Arulagam, which works for vulture conservation, said. “There is evidence of Egyptian vulture breeding only at one site in Dharmapuri,” he said.
A white backed vulture being trained to fly in Siryur near Mudumalai Tiger Reserve. File | Photo Credit: M. Sathyamoorthy
The committee, apart from the senior officials of the Forest Department, also has other experts, including K. Ramesh from the Wildlife Institute of India, S. Muralidharan of SACON, Vibhu Prakash of the Bombay Natural History Society, and two locals involved in conservation — B. Ramakrishnan of the Government Arts College, Uthagamandalam, Mr. Bharathidasan of Arulagam.
The committee, which has a two-year tenure, will take steps for monitoring the conservation and recovery of existing vulture sites and mapping of vulture populations across the State for creating safe zones. It will work to eliminate the use of toxic veterinary drugs, the main reason for vulture fatalities.
“Tamil Nadu is a pioneer. It banned two drugs that caused vulture deaths a long time ago,” Mr. Bharathidasan said. The State’s vulture population has since stabilised and slightly increased.
Mr. Ramakrishnan also agrees that the population is steadily growing. He began studying the vulture population in the Nilgiris landscape from 2010. “Even then, veterinarians in Nilgiris and Erode were not prescribing Diclofenac,” he recalls. Vulture fatalities were earlier reported after the species was exposed to the drug, when the birds consumed carcasses of animals treated with Diclofenac for ailments.
Both experts agree the availability of food is a key factor determining vulture populations. “After the formation of tiger reserves in the Nilgiris landscape [including Karnataka’s reserves], the number of tigers has increased and therefore, the vulture population that scavenge on the kills,” Mr. Ramakrishnan said.
Vultures play an extremely important role as nature’s scavengers, keeping the environment clean. Their social and ecological significance cannot be underestimated, Ms. Sahu said, adding “It is the last level scavenger.”
“They even eat bones. Even if it consumes an anthrax [contaminated] carcass, it won’t get affected,” Mr. Ramakrishnan said. According to him, vultures in the Nilgiris landscape constitute the southernmost population of the birds in India. Researchers and activists both say that the poisoning of cattle carcasses is a cause for concern. Mr. Ramakrishnan’s team had analysed 47 carcasses in the last ten years and found two-three had been poisoned.
Prevention of poisoning of cattle carcasses, the principal food of vultures, is also one of the responsibilities of the newly formed committee.
