In 2020, eight critically endangered Oriental white-backed captive-bred vultures were released into the wild for the first time ever in India from the Jatayu Conservation Breeding Centre in Pinjore, Haryana. Close to three years later, five survive and two have paired and successfully nested, in the untamed habitat of the Shivalik range in the foothills of the Himalayas. This has received a hurrah from wildlife enthusiasts working towards protecting the vultures that have been under threat of extinction since the 1990s.
There has been no report of veterinary non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) related mortality. This too is a relief for ornithologists, who had over the years been worried about the uncontrolled veterinary use of NSAIDs especially the illegal use of the banned drug diclofenac that has caused vulture deaths. These are given to livestock and are toxic to vultures if they feed on their carcasses.
“Nesting is a very important milestone and an encouraging sign for the re-induction programme. Also, the fact that there has been no mortality is inspiring and indicates increasing vulture safe zones,” said Kishor Rithe, the interim director at Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) said.
After the release from Pinjore, 31 Oriental white-backed vultures were released in batches in West Bengal in 2021. “All the birds fly every day and have started locating their own food. Our teams have been monitoring the released birds. Of the 31, as many as 29 are surviving,” Mr. Rithe said.
In 1993 there was an estimated population of 40 million vultures in India, as per a BNHS study. The population of three species — the Oriental white-backed, the long-billed, and the slender-billed — has declined by over 97% since the 1990s. The Oriental white-backed vulture prevalence has gone down by an astonishing 99.9%. All three species are classified as critically endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), composed of both government and civil society bodies. The species come under schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, meaning they enjoy the highest level of protection.
The BNHS and Royal Society for Protection of Birds (RSPB) have been managing four Jatayu conservation breeding centres across the country in partnership with the State governments of Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, and Assam. Through this conservation breeding programme, the BNHS-RSPB has bred more than 700 birds in captivity since 2004.
The birds ‘wear’ tracking devices, through which the team has found that one of the Oriental white-backs released from Rajabhatkhawa in West Bengal flew into Nepal, re-entered India, and then reached Bhutan, and is now back in India. “So, this bird is moving between Nepal, Bhutan, and India,” Mr. Rithe said.
Prompted by the success, BHMS has already started the construction of soft release centres in Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Rajasthan, and at three tiger reserves in Maharashtra. Mr. Rithe said tiger reserves have become free from humans and livestock, and have sufficient wild prey that are free from NSAIDs, hence BNHS now intends to use these inviolate areas to release the captively bred vultures. A vulture-safe zone is an area of 30,000 sq km that is declared free from the drug diclofenac, says the IUCN.
Conservationists believe that a ban on NSAIDs which are toxic to vultures will go a long way in vulture conservation. Dr. Vibhu Prakash, an independent raptor researcher and formerly associated with Pinjore’s conservation centre, said that the Drugs Technical Advisory Board (DTAB), a government body, had recently recommended a ban on the use, sale, and manufacture of veterinary drugs Aceclofenac and Ketoprofen, for animal use.
The DTAB in its meeting on May 10, 2023, agreed to prohibit the manufacture, sale and distribution of the drugs Ketoprofen and Aceclofenac, and their formulations for animal use. “Once a notification regarding the ban is out, it would really help in vulture protection, as vultures feeding on cattle carcasses treated with these drugs suffer mortality due to visceral gout and kidney failure. The complete ban would help to stop this,” he said.
The DTAB also suggested that a list of all drugs which affect animal health or the environment be prepared for further action, and recommended constituting a sub-committee to examine the matter in detail and submit its report to the Board.
