VULTURE EXTINCTION
INTRODUCTION:
A vulture is a bird of prey that scavenges on meat. There are 23 extant species of vulture distributed all over the world. A special characteristic of many vultures is a bald, featherless head which plays a major role in thermoregulation.
REASONS:
Vultures in South Asia, especially in India and Nepal, have declined dramatically since the early 1990s. It has been found that this decline was caused by residues of the veterinary drug, DICLOFENAC in animal carcasses.
The Drugs Control Department of Tamil Nadu state officers has filed charges against 104 suppliers, distributors, manufacturers and retailers of DICLOFENAC in the state.
| The medicine was banned for veterinary use by the Government of India in 2006 since it was found to be the main cause of the dramatic decline (99%) of the vulture population across Asia. |
The Government of India formally put a cap on the DICLOFENAC vial size in 2015, following the evidence presented by the Bombay Natural History Society team that the bigger size vials were being misused for veterinary use.
Conservationists welcomed the step and said that such steps should be taken across the country.
Tamil Nadu's decision to enforce the vial-size restriction on DICLOFENAC for use on cattle is one of the rare instances of policies to protect vultures being implemented by local governments, said S Bharathidasan of Arulagam, a non-governmental organization and partner of Saving Asia's Vultures from Extinction (SAVE) initiative.
It has been working towards vulture conservation in Tamil Nadu. He said,
"The government has also actively moved to curtail the use of other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, such as ketoprofen and flunixin, in the Nilgiris, Erode and Coimbatore-the few vulture strongholds in the state."
Chris Bowden, Globally Threatened Species Officer for the Royal Society for the protection of Birds and programme manager for SAVE, said-
"There are safe alternative drugs available, so there is no justification to allow this illegal practice of continued DICLOFENAC use. Meloxicam and Tolfenamic acid are cheap and safe options and out of patent. So, drug manufacturers and suppliers should focus on producing them and help the vulture population recover. If DICLOFENAC can be fully removed from veterinary practices across India, we can start releasing vultures from the breeding programs and look for population recovery.
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There is a final step required though: To regulate the use of three other dangerous drugs-Aceclofenac, Nimesulide, and Ketoprofen - All proven vulture killers. But with safe options available, this step seems a small price to pay for saving India's nine vulture species from extinction."
