Efforts to Conserve Vultures

Efforts to Conserve Vultures

Main Examination: General Studies Question Paper-3

(Environment Protection)

September 16, 2023

Foreword:

  • Since the time of Jatayu, the famous character of Ramayana, vultures have found an important place in Indian public policy. Although country-level long-term population estimates are rarely available, there were millions of vultures in India by the early 1990s.
  • The diet of vultures is meat of dead animals, dead cattle are an easy source of food for these vultures. But due to eating poisonous cattle meat, vultures are not easily seen since 1990.

Status and Value of Vultures:

  • Nine species of vultures are found in the Indian subcontinent: White-tailed Gyps bengalensis, Long-billed G. indicus, Slender-billed G. tenuirostris, Red-headed Sarcogyps calvus, Egyptian Vulture Neophron perconopterus, Himalayan Griffon Gyps himalayanensis, Cinereous Vulture aegyptius. Monachus, the bearded vulture Gypses barbatus and the Eurasian griffon Gyps fulvus.
  • Of these nine species, the white-tailed Gyps bengalensis was considered the most common large raptor globally.
  • Vultures have been an invaluable ecosystem in keeping our environment clean due to their consumption of cattle carcasses.
  • Along with this, mankind also gets help in controlling epidemics and harmful insects. In the European context it has been found that, vultures provide services worth approximately 1,600,000 Euros (approximately INR 13.40 crore) annually through feeding on carrion.
  • Vultures also compete with feral/stray dogs for food, thereby contributing to unintentional control of dog populations.
  • India, along with a decline in the vulture population since the mid-1990s, has seen a huge increase in the wild dog population, potentially putting more people at risk of dog bites and rabies. .
  • According to a study in 2008, a one unit increase in the vulture population results in a decline of about seven units in the dog population. The same study analyzed that approximately one million dog bites in India require rabies vaccine worth Rs 538.1 million for subsidized and Rs 3,956 million for non-subsidised, respectively.

Vulture species on the verge of extinction:

  • Between the mid-1990s and 2007, 99.9% of white-tailed vultures have disappeared.
  • Their number in India is reduced to only 6,000. This critically endangered vulture species has been included in the list of "Critically Endangered" animals.
  • A huge decline of about 97% was observed in the population of long-billed vultures. There are estimated to be only 30,000 long-billed vultures left. These have also been placed in the list of "Critically Endangered" animals.
  • The number of thin-billed vultures is estimated to be only 1200, they are also counted in the category of "Critically Endangered".
  • Reliable population estimates of the remaining six Indian species of vultures are not available.

Deadly side effects of Analgesics:

  • India is the country with the largest cattle population in the world. A major part of India's livestock is cows, buffaloes etc. Along with being a source of milk, meat, leather, cattle are also useful as draft. Since the mid-1990s, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) called diclofenac began to be used to treat cattle.
  • The danger begins when cattle die during treatment and vultures feed on the carcasses of the same dead cattle. By 2004–2005, many scientists believed that diclofenac was the main cause of vulture deaths and population decline.
  • Diclofenac-containing meat left in the tissues of dead cattle acts as poison for vultures. Even low doses of this drug cause severe kidney damage in vultures. According to postmortem reports, the drug causes intestinal gout (accumulation of uric acid in tissues) and kidney necrosis in vultures. This has resulted in the death of lakhs of vultures.
  • There are at least 14 other NSAIDs in veterinary use throughout South Asia, of which, like diclofenac, aceclofenac is a threat to vultures. The same problem occurs with other NSAID drugs like nimesulide, ketoprofen, carprofen and flunixin salts.
  • Only two drugs, meloxicam and tolfenamic acid, have currently been evaluated and found to be safe for vultures.

Government's efforts for vulture conservation:

  • In view of the major decline in the vulture population in the Indian subcontinent, the Government of India banned diclofenac in 2006.
  • The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) discontinued the veterinary use of diclofenac on the recommendation of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
  • Through the Vulture Conservation Action Plan (APVC), the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, supported by the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), has established an ambitious vulture conservation breeding program to avoid extinction, in which the population of selected Gyps vultures of the Indian subcontinent can be revived.
  • Despite the ban on Diclofenac, the environment has not been freed from cattle carcasses contaminated with this poisonous drug. Again, nine years later, in 2015, a cap of 3ml was set on multi-dose human-use vials of diclofenac, to discourage their misuse for veterinary purposes. Since 2015, surveys have found a gradual decline in the presence of diclofenac in the environment, which is good news.
  • The ban on Diclofenac in 2006, decisive steps taken by the Government of India in 2008 towards safeguarding the future of vultures in the Indian subcontinent, were milestones. Also, captive breeding of vulture species facing extinction was initiated by BNHS with the support of the Ministry of Environment and Forests and the State Government of Haryana.
  • Starting from the Jatayu Vulture Conservation Breeding Center in Pinjore, Haryana, three more centers were established in Rajabhatkhawa (West Bengal), Guwahati (Assam) and Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh). The Central Zoo Authority (CZA) facilitated these initiatives. Successful captive breeding of three critically endangered "Critically Endangered" vulture species has been made possible for the first time, with over 700 captive vultures in breeding centres.
  • Vulture safe areas have been identified for release of vultures around breeding centers and areas where vulture populations are still present. These areas are monitored to keep them free of vulture-poisoning NSAIDs, with vulture populations stable, not declining.

Settlement:

  • Concerned government authorities and drug manufacturers at national, state and district levels should reconsider and adopt a more sensitive and nuanced approach with vulture-venom NSAIDs.
  • Similar to diclofenac, a complete ban on the remaining vulture-poisoning NSAIDs should be the next logical step, along with a restriction of vial size to no more than 3ml size to avoid misuse of human formulations.
  • For example – the Bangladesh government has already banned ketoprofen in 2021 due to vulture poisoning. In 2015, the Directorate of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services of the Government of Tamil Nadu stopped the use of ketoprofen in the Nilgiris, Erode and Coimbatore districts.
  • As an alternative, among the existing NSAIDs in the market, meloxicam and tolfenamic acid formulations need to be widely promoted and used by veterinarians for animal treatment purposes. These drugs have been evaluated to be vulture-safe and are recommended in national and international policy documents. Such as the Government of India's APVC (2020-2025) and the Convention on Migratory Species Multi-Species Action Plan to Conserve African-Eurasian Vultures.
  • Safety testing of existing (drugs that are yet to be safety tested) and upcoming veterinary drugs need to be done institutionally, at least for animals that consume carcasses.
  • The Central Government, research institutes and concerned authorities in the veterinary drug industry should join hands to include animals eating carcasses within the scope of safety testing of veterinary NSAIDs.
  • Perhaps, then, future veterinary drugs will prevent harm caused by animals accidentally eating dead animals.

Conclusion:

  • As much as healthy cattle are important for us, it is equally important that vultures also remain healthy, so that the carcasses of dead cattle can be cleaned. The way we decide to treat our cattle should be such that all the vultures for whom the dead carcasses of cattle are food are never poisoned by the treatment.

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Mains Exam Question

Suggest suitable solutions by mentioning the efforts of the Government of India for the conservation of endangered vultures.