NSAIDS Threat to Vulture Population

In News 

• Recently, the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) wrote a letter urging the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) to ban the use of three veterinary drugs known to kill vultures in the country.

Major Issues highlighted by Letter 

• The letter warns that the rampant use of the three non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) threatens to undo the Centre’s two decades of work to arrest the dwindling vulture population in the wild. 
• Surprisingly, the three drugs—aceclofenac, ketoprofen and nimesulide—were introduced as alternatives to diclofenac
  • India banned it  in 2006 for animal use because it caused widespread vulture deaths.
•  India has slowed down vulture mortality rate, but not stabilised the population.
  • Vultures were quite common till the 1980s. Currently, eight species in the country face extinction.
• The country’s vulture population crashed from over 40,000 in 2003 to 18,645 in 2015, as per the last vulture census conducted by intergovernmental body Bird Life International.

About Vultures

• Vultures are one of the 22 species of large carrion-eating birds that live predominantly in the tropics and subtropics. 
• India is home to nine species of vultures and these are :

Image courtesy: TheIndianwire                                                                                                                        

Vulture Population in India

• The decline in vulture populations came into limelight in the mid-90s.
• India has lost 99 per cent of the population of the three species — Oriental White-Backed Vulture, Long-billed Vulture and Slender-billed Vulture. 
• The Red-headed and the Egyptian Vulture populations have also crashed by 91 percent and 80 per cent respectively.

Importance of Vultures

• They act an important function as nature’s garbage collectors and help to keep the environment clean of waste.
• Vultures are  carcass feeders & play a significant role in the natural mechanism of infection control.
• Despite feeding on infected carcasses, vultures do not get infected. The acids in their stomach are potent enough to kill the pathogen.
• They remove bacteria and other poisons in the environment quickly, consuming carcasses before they decay.
• The birds also prevent the contamination of water sources, especially in the wild. 
  • When animals die near watering holes, there is an imminent danger of contamination resulting in a quick spread of infections and mass death.

• Vultures are critically important to the Parsi community. The community leaves its dead atop the Towers of Silence to be consumed by vultures.
  • Today, the Parsis may have turned to other methods, including solar accelerators to hasten the decomposition of the dead, but none has proved as efficient or as hygienic as vultures.

Threats Faced by them

• Use of Diclofenac: It was found that vultures, which are exposed to diclofenac after feeding on the carcass of dead farm animals, died of kidney failure.
• Lack of Nesting Trees : Cutting down trees for agriculture, urbanisation and firewood purposes, a cause of habitat degradation is a threat to the nesting sites of vultures. 
  • Fire and grazing also decrease the safe roosting and nesting sites of vultures.
• Electrocution by power lines
• Food Dearth and Contaminated Food
• Pesticide poisoning also threatens vultures across the country. 

• Train collision was a major reason for vulture deaths in Jaisalamer and Bikaner.
  • Stray cows would often forage near the railway tracks and get hit by trains. Then vultures would come to eat the carcasses and get run over by trains

• Human activities and traffic on the roads is a cause of concern as vultures may feed on roads making them prone to accidents

Conservation efforts

• The Centre in 2020 launched a Vulture Action Plan 2020-25 for the conservation of vultures in the country.
• The Drugs Controller General of India has banned the veterinary use of diclofenac.
• The Central Zoo Authority (CZA) and Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) also established the Vulture Conservation Breeding Programme. 
• The MoEFCC released the Action Plan for Vulture Conservation 2006 with the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) banning the veterinary use of diclofenac in the same year.
• The country is also a signatory to the Convention on Migratory Species’ Multi-species Action Plan to Conserve African-Eurasian Vultures, which recognises NSAIDS as a major threat to vultures in India. Still, little seems to have moved on the ground.
• In 2015, Tamil Nadu became the first state to ban the veterinary use of ketoprofen in Nilgiri, Erode and Coimbatore districts. 

Way Ahead

• Cowsheds should maintain medical records and note down the time of death of their animals. The treatment should decide whether the body is to be cremated or sent to a dumping ground.
• Creating awareness among the cattle owners is the only way to prevent deliberate poisoning aimed towards eliminating problematic large carnivores.
• There is a need for the strict implementation of the Insecticide Act 1968 to regulate the use of pesticides.

Source:DTE