Researchers have recorded the first instance of captive breeding of the Himalayan vulture (Gyps himalayensis) in India at the Assam State Zoo, Guwahati.
Key points
- The Himalayan vulture is categorised as ‘Near Threatened’ on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of threatened species.
- The vulture species is a common winter migrant to the Indian plains, and a resident of the high Himalayas.
- The Himalayan vultures successfully bred at the zoo were rescued in 2011-2012 from different poisonings and accidents.
- Breeding the species in Guwahati was a daunting task as, in nature, this species breeds in snow-clad mountains. But as these birds were kept in zoo for a long time, they acclimatised to the tropical environment, and the researchers helped them rear the young one, which led the whole process to this unique success.
- The conservation breeding of the Himalayan vulture at the Guwahati Zoo is the second such instance in the world, after France, where the species has been bred in captivity.
Vulture breeding centres in India
- Four VCBCs established by Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) at Pinjore in Haryana, Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, Rani in Assam, and Rajabhatkhawa in West Bengal are involved in conservation breeding of the White-rumped vulture (Gyps bengalensis), Slender-billed vulture(Gyps tenuirostris), and the Indian vulture (Gyps indicus).
- The unprecedented scale and speed of declines in vulture populations has left all the three resident Gyps vulture species categorised ‘Critically Endangered’.
Vulture species in India
- A total of nine species of vultures are found in India. Out of these six species are resident (white–rumped vulture, Indian vulture, slender-billed vulture, red-headed vulture, bearded vulture and Egyptian vulture) and three species are migratory (cinereous vulture, griffon vulture and Himalayan vulture).
- Once numbering 40 million, mostly white-rumped, Indian and slender-billed, the numbers saw a catastrophic fall between 1990 and 2007.
- As per experts, 99.9 per cent of white-rumped vultures, and 99 per cent of the Indian and slender-billed varieties died out between 1993 and 2007, while other species saw fall in numbers between 81 per cent and 90 per cent.
- Experts zeroed in on diclofenac, a veterinary drug used for pain management in livestock, as the main cause of the near wipe-out of vultures, who were eating such carrion and then suffering kidney failure almost within 24 hours.
- In view of this threat to vultures that brought them close to extinction, diclofenac was banned for veterinary use in India and Nepal in 2006 and in Bangladesh in 2010. Despite this ban, human-use diclofenac was being use in veterinary treatments.
(Sources: The Hindu and The Indian Express)
