Vultures sighted in Katarniaghat

Vultures sighted in Katarniaghat
Jan 6, 2014, 10.42 AM IST

BAHRAICH: At a time when national and international agencies are trying to save vultures, which are on the verge of extinction, sighting of around 216 vultures and 21 nests, including white-backed vulture (gyps africanus), cinerous vulture (aegypius monachus), long-billed vulture (gyps indicus) in Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary in Bahraich district comes as a ray of hope for wildlife enthusiasts.

During a visit to the forest areas of Girjapuri seed farm in Western range, district forest officer (DFO) wildlife, Aasheesh Tewari spotted 216 vultures feeding on a carcass. On close scrutiny, the scavengers were found to be of white-backed vulture (gyps africanus), cinerous vulture (aegypius monachus) and long-billed vulture (gyps indicus).

Secretary of Society for Conservation of Nature R Chauhan, who was able to photograph the flock, said: "There is a larger presence of long-billed vultures and the count stood at 140 while 32 cinerous vultures and 44 white-backed vultures were spotted in Majra village which comes under Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary."

"Such a huge count of vultures only indicates that people here do not give drugs like diclofenac to the cattle," he said. Tewari said the sighting of vultures and the nests is encouraging. "We would soon conduct a survey to make plans for the breeding and conservation," the DFO said.

The villagers of Paschimi range said they have been witnessing vultures since the past couple of months. "There is thin presence of cinerous vulture and white-backed vulture, which is a cause of concern. The presence of long-billed vulture, which is critically endangered, only gives us a ray of hope," he said.

The decline of three of Asia's critically endangered vulture species has begun to stabilise in India and Nepal.

The latest surveys show that the numbers of three gtyps species - oriental white-backed vulture, long-billed vulture and slender-billed vulture -- have remained stable in the last couple of years and may even have reversed for the oriental white-backed.

Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), a Mumbai-based NGO engaged in nature conservation, and the Britain-based charitable organisation Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), which is funding vulture conservation projects in India and Nepal, conducted a study.

According to the study, vultures are important to humans as they dispose of the carcasses of animals, which are otherwise to rot or provide food for the growing population of stray dogs, which cause health risks and nuisance.

The report highlights the need for further efforts to eliminate steroidal anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac, which was once commonly used in treating cattle.

BNHS studies attribute the decline of vulture species to the extensive use of diclofenac in treating cattle. The vultures that consumed the carcasses of animals treated with diclofenac died with symptoms of kidney failure.

The toxicity of diclofenac to vultures and the evidence of its effect on populations were the reasons for its withdrawal.

Prior to the ban on veterinary diclofenac in India in 2006, vulture population was decreasing at a rate of up to 40% a year.

According to the study, populations of oriental white-backed, long-billed and slender-billed vulture crashed throughout the Indian subcontinent in the mid-1990s.

Surveys in India, initially conducted in 1991-1993 and repeated from 2000 to 2007, revealed that the population of the white-backed vulture had fallen to 0.1% of its total number by 2007 from the early 1990s. Likewise, the population of the long-billed vulture and the slender-billed vulture combined had fallen to 3.2% of earlier levels.

A survey of the white-backed vulture in western Nepal indicated that the size of the population in 2009 was 25 percent of that in 2002.

The study, based on the surveys conducted last year by BNHS and Bird Conservation Nepal, was undertaken across more than 15,000 km of roads in western, central and eastern states of India and across 1,000 km of roads in the lowland regions of Nepal.

Population of several species of vultures and other scavenging birds worldwide has declined, says the study. It is because of reduction of food availability, collisions with man-made structures, contamination with remains of spent lead ammunition and poisoning of vultures.