EXTINCTION OF VULTURES IN INDIA.

Seeing vultures flying high in the sky is already a thing of the past in most parts of the country. Such rapid decline is especially dangerous for slow-breeding birds like vultures, which will be slow to recover. Worse, vultures are highly social and rely on each other to find food, so, once they are thinly spread, the end could be swift.

Any further delay in starting efforts for conservation will lead to extinction of these ‘natural scavengers’. The population of Slender-billed Gyps tenuirostris, Indian Gyps indicus and White-rumped Vultures Gyps. bengalensis, in the last 12 years, has crashed by 97% (20 million -40 million birds 12 years ago, to a figure in the low thousands now) Now these birds are classified by the World Conservation Union as "critically endangered"; the category most at risk of extinction in the near future. The White-rumped Vulture was probably the most common large bird of prey in the world prior to the diclofenac crisis.

It is interesting to know, that for several years, no one noticed the vultures were declining rapidly because the original population was so large, but by 1995 people began to wonder what was happening.

In 1997, an alert was issued warning that the species had declined dramatically.

How did this happen?

·         The anti-inflammatory, diclofenac, (similar to ibuprofen), was used by cattle farmers as a popular cure-all to treat a variety of diseases.

·         Vultures feeding on carcasses of cows treated with the drug died of kidney failure as it was a poison for the vultures. Moreover. , the use of this medication was “careless and casual.”

In 2006, the Indian government took the crucial first step by ordering a halt to the production and sale of the veterinary drug. However, Wildlife group Birdlife International said that "researchers looking into safe alternatives have now identified that a second livestock treatment in Asia -- ketoprofen -- is also lethal to the birds.” Conservationists are now pushing for another drug to be used by farmers in a last-ditch effort to save the vultures. 

Scientists say that the absence of vultures poses a threat to public health, since uneaten livestock carcasses provide breeding grounds for bacteria. The situation might already have deteriorated to the point of no return. Vultures are large birds, long-living and slow-breeding, and produce an average of just one egg a year. It will take many years for the birds to come back, if ever. It is time for action, it is time. 


                                                                                      - Unnattee Eusebius 
                                                                                        St. Stephen's College, Delhi