Vultures : Nature's disposal squad

Akham Bonbirdhwaja Singh *

Vultures :: Pix - Snowmanradio/Wikipedia

Vulture is a patient bird. It is very hardy and have long life span. It can survive in a wide range of habitats. In India, we have nine species, Oriental White Rumped Vulture or White Backed Vulture (Gyps bengalensis), Long Billed Vulture (Gyps indicus), Slender Billed Vulture (Gyps tenuirostris) and Himalyan Griffon (Gyps himalayensis) being the common ones. The first three are in Schedule I and the Himalayan Griffon is in Schedule IV of Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972. Vultures are also in Appendix II of CITES and IUCN has classified them as Critically Endangered.

In Manipur also we had plenty of vultures in the not too long past. They are disappearing. I thought at one stage that they have become extinct in Manipur. Where have all the vultures gone? Recently a vulture was rescued from Churachandpur District of Manipur. According to Arun RS, Director, Manipur Zoological Garden, it is a Himalayan Griffon. Thanks to the Deputy Commissioner of Churachandpur for her interests in saving the bird. This bird might have strayed in to the Manipur territory from neighbouring states. In our childhood, vultures were common sight.

I still remember a group of vultures perching on the top of two Peepal trees (Ficus religeosa) by the roadside near my house. In those days, a good number tales were associated with vultures as per local superstitious beliefs. One of my aunt really hated vultures. A little away from our house towards eastern side, there is a village called Keikhu. In those days, during epidemic of Pigs, a few animals would die in group in the village and there, vultures would have a good meal. They would finish three or four carcasses in a matter of one or two hours. They would even swallow the blood stained pebbles and ultimately they become so heavy that we used to chase them. They need a good ten yards running before take off for flight.

Vultures are one of the best scavengers/cleaners of the nature and the most efficient one at that. It will eat meat of any dead animal, even putrid ones. It can eat even human flesh, we know of the tower of silence. It has a sharp eye, big body and big appetite, with hooked beak, it can tear skins and muscles easily. They also stay in a group thereby making the job of scavenging easy and fast. If a carcass or a corpse is to manually disposed by using gas or electric incinerators, we may have to spend thousands of rupees.

They have a wide home range. They can fly up to a hundred kilometres a day in scarcity of food. In nature's food chain, the scavengers play a vital role, their role is more important than that of carnivores even. They keep the environment clean and save it from diseases. Without them, the putrefying carcasses would harbour diseases endangering lives of human beings and wildlife. They are our friends and we should not believe that their sight is a bad omen.

In Manipur, the decline of vultures might have been due to a different cause. In other parts of the country, the vultures have been almost eliminated from the wild due to presence of diclofenac in carcasses resulted out of veterinary use of Diclofenac. Diclofenac and Acyclofenac are common pain killer in human beings and animals both. In Manipur, there may not be much of veterinary use of diclofenac for animals, So it may not the main cause. Most probable reasons are

-Absence of nesting place – 40 years back Imphal valley had a good number of healthy Peepal and Kadam (Anthocephalus cadamba) trees which make good nesting places. In the nearby hills also there are no suitable precipice and crevices.

-Absence of carcasses – Somehow, there is no carcasses, Earlier, in the khaslands near villages such as Lamphel, dead animals were thrown but such things are not happening due to obvious reasons. Carcasses may now be found only in forests.

-Easy Targets – The vultures, due to their gigantic size are easy targets either for catapults or guns. The vulture weighs 5 to 6 kgs. They are easy to trap also. Some people eat vulture meat also. Due to their looks and associated myths, we have not realised that they are our best friends.

Rebuilding wild population is not an easy task. The Bombay Natural Highway Society (BNHS) has taken up the task as the population of vulture has gone down to forty thousand from forty millions during last decade. That is 99 percent decrease in population of vultures. This is an alarming situation. The BNHS has three breeding centres, one each in Haryana, Bengal and Assam. I had the chance to visit the one in Haryana with my friends from the IGNFA. It is in Pinjore near Pinjore Garden (Mughal period garden) on the other side of the National Highway along the foothills of Siwaliks.

I met both Dr. Vibhu Prakash and Dr.(Mrs) Prakash. Dr. R D. Jakati, IFS (Retd) former Director, Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy (IGNFA) had a big hand in setting up the centre in Haryana. This centre is doing a remarkable work. The technique they have adopted is that the egg laying hen is kept separately. Even the lame birds, rescued ones are allowed to breed in the centre. They are very slow breeders.

So, as soon as they lay first egg the egg is removed immediately and quietly. This induces the hens to lay another egg, otherwise, they normally lay only one egg a year. One egg hatched in hatchery and the other by the parents (both the parents take turns to incubate).

The breeding centre has been able to rear quite a good number of chicks which have grown in to young adults. They have taken good care that they do not have any human imprint, they are not allowed to see any humans and all the feedings are done by avoiding human contact. Dr. Prakash takes special care for that. All the activities of the birds are closely monitored through CCTV cameras. Recorded and real time monitoring can be done.

The young adults are ready to be released in the wild but the problem they are facing is that, in India, the carcasses still carry traces of diclofenac and the contaminated food will kill all the young vultures. There is no safe zone still for the vultures. If such contaminated carcasses are somehow eliminated, the "Vulture Restaurants" can be opened where safe food can be served to the vultures. Such a condition need to be created.

In Manipur, there are no cases of diclofenac contaminated domestic animal carcasses. So, if the vultures are reintroduced with vulture restaurants, it could work to start with. In the meantime, all the diclofenac and acyclofenac for veterinary use and other chlorine based pesticides can be totally done away so that these birds are not further endangered.

Let us remember that we have lost 31 birds during last three decades alone and we have 197 bird species on the verge of extinction, including our vultures. We have very few birds and now we are seeing only in the zoos. This ugly looking bird is a beauty of the nature and a great cleaner. It is nature's disposal squad. The Birdman of India Dr. Salim Ali called them as nature's own incinerator.

It is the best scavenger nature has created and a close friend of man and wildlife, but it is very close to extinction. They are dying due to human actions only. We should love them and stop killing them. We should not allow them to be extinct.