The National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) in its meetings on October 5, 2020 has cleared an ‘Action Plan for Vulture Conservation 2020-2025’ for conserving vultures. The minutes of that meeting were only made available recently.
Salient Features of the Action Plan
- Diclofenac, a drug used to treat cattle and known to poison vultures will be banned by the Drugs Controller General of India. Though the drug was banned in 2006, it is reportedly still available for use.
- It proposes to establish Vulture Conservation Breeding Centres in Uttar Pradesh, Tripura, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
- There would also be a conservation breeding programme for the Red Headed vulture and Egyptian vulture.
- It also proposed at least one “Vulture Safe Zone” in every State for the conservation of the remnant populations.
- There would be four rescue centres in different geographical areas: Pinjore in north India, Bhopal in central India, Guwahati in northeast India and Hyderabad in south India.
- Regular surveys to track population numbers will be carried out.
Population decline
- According to an earlier estimate by the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), three of India’s vulture species of the genus ‘Gyps’— the long-billed (Gyps indicus) and the slender-billed (G. tenuirostris) had declined by 97%, while in the white-rumped (G. bengalensis) declined nearly 99% between 1992 and 2007.
(Source: The Hindu)
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