JAIPUR: They are a despised lot except to ornithologists. Seen as a harbinger of death, they have always been the most neglected lot even as they went about their business of keeping the environment clean from rotting carcasses and bodies.
Apathy and neglect have reduced the vulture population so much so that they have been included in the list of critically endangered birds. But all's not lost. A start has been made. The state forest department had observed the first Vulture Awareness and Conservation Day on September 5.
A day-long seminar was held at the Forest Training Institute to mark the occasion as Anil Chhagani, professor at the department of zoology, JVV University in Jodhpur, who has been keenly following vultures in the Rajasthan and Gujarat, gave a presentation on the status of the bird in the two states. The seminar also discussed ways of conserving and spreading awareness about the bird.
As a first step, according to chief wildlife warden, Rajasthan, R N Mehrotra, a circular will be issued during the forthcoming Wildlife Week beginning October 1 to all forest staff in the state to ensure that all nesting and breeding sites of vultures, spread mostly along the periphery of reserved forests are preserved.
Discussions for a captive breeding programme for vultures in the state was abandoned due to lack of space. Instead, as suggested by Chhagani, an in situ conservation programme was sought as a better alternative.
"In most cases whenever a young vulture takes its first flight it falls. This is the time when these birds are attacked by dogs and jackals. If we can just fix a net around its breeding site then one can put the bird back to the nest in case of a fall," Chhagani felt.
According to him, Rajasthan had more than 5,000 vultures with villages (that have a large cattle population) being their hotspots. Areas around reserved forests are also preferred by the bird.
"Seven species of vultures, including the Long-billed, White-backed, Red-headed, Egyptian, Himalayan, Eurasian and Cinereous vultures are present in the state. There is also a considerable flock of migratory vultures that start coming here between October and January-February.
"But traditionally, very little is being done to preserve them. On the other hand, there has been massive habitat loss due to mining, quarrying and blasting. Other reasons for the drop in the vulture populace has been scarcity of food, predation by dogs and death due to road accidents while feeding on carcass," he said.
"In fact, the change in land use pattern has also severely affected the bird population as several large tress have been felled to make way for crops," Chhagani said.
Explaining the importance of vultures, Chhagani said that these birds act as natural scavengers. "However, use of diclofenac as a drug for cattle has caused a decline in their population as this drug has an adverse effect on them," he said.
"The need of the hour is to monitor them state-wise, monitor their breeding sites, set up a special cell for coordinating vulture conservation and seek all zoos in the state to play a role in rescuing these birds," he added.
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