Endangered Species in India (Vultures) PDF

Endangered Species in India -4 1.Vultures Also known as Jatayu in India. Govt of India has recognised them as “the most efficient soldiers of swachh Bharat Abhiyaan”. There are twenty-three species of vultures in...

Endangered Species in India -4 1.Vultures Also known as Jatayu in India. Govt of India has recognised them as “the most efficient soldiers of swachh Bharat Abhiyaan”. There are twenty-three species of vultures in the World, found in North America, South America, Africa, Europe and Asia. Australia lacks vultures. Out of 23 species Nine species of vultures are recorded from India. Status of Vultures in India Common Scientific Resident/ Conservatio Status Estimated Name Name Migratory n Conservatio Population n in India Bearded (BV) Gypaetus barbatus Resident Near Schedule‐I Not available Threatened Cinereous Aegypius calvus Strictly Winter Near --- Not available (CV) visitor Threatened Egyptian (EV) Neophron Resident Endangered --- Not available percnopterus Eurasian (EG) Gyps fulvus Strictly Winter Least --- Not available Griffon visitor Concern Himalayan Gyps Himalayans’s Largely Winter Near --- Not (HV) Visiter / resident Threatened available Indian Resident Critically Schedule‐I 26,500 vulture/ Gyps indicus Endangered Long‐billed (LBV) Red‐headed Sarcogyps calvus Resident Critically --- Not available (RHV) endangered Slender‐ Gyps tenuirostris Resident Critically Schedule‐I 1,000 billed (SBV) Endangered White- Resident Critically Schedule‐I 6,000 rumped endangered vultures/ Gyps bengalensis Oriental White‐ backed (OWBV) Q. What is the IUCN status of ‘Indian Vulture’ recently seen in the news? Answer: Critically Endangered Analysis: Five belong to the genus ‘Gyps’. They are - Oriental White-backed Vulture (OWBV) , Long-billed Vulture (LBV) , Slender-billed Vulture (SBV) ,Himalayan Vulture (HV) and the Eurasian Griffon (EG). Rest Four are monotypic. These include - a) Red-headed Vulture (RHV) :Sarcogyps calvus. b) Egyptian Vulture (EV): Neophron percnopterus, c) Bearded Vulture (BV): Gypaetus barbatus (all residents) and d) Cinereous Vulture (CV) :Aegypius calvus (strictly Wintering). Note :A sub-species of EV ‘Neophron Percnopterus percnopterus’ is largely wintering. Drastic decline : Vultures were very common in India till the1980s. During this period, the populations of the three resident Gyps species (OWBV, LBV and SBV) in the country was estimated at 40 million Individuals. The overall population however crashed by over 90% during the mid-nineties. By 2007, 99% of the three Gyps species had been wiped out. This decline is unprecedented in the animal world. The crash in vulture populations came into limelight in the mid-nineties, and in 2004 the cause of the crash was established as diclofenac, a veterinary NSAID. Govt of India measures to protect vultures : Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change (MoEFCC), Government of India, Acted swiftly and released the Action Plan for Vulture Conservation (APVC) 2006, to save the vultures from Possible extinction. The APVC 2006 had the following Major objectives for the conservation of vultures in the Country: A. Removing the main causative agent for vulture Mortality – diclofenac Note : Diclofenac is drug used by the cattle owners for treating their diseased cattle B. Curbing leakage of human formulation of diclofenac into the veterinary sector C. Monitoring conservation and recovery of vulture Sites D. Setting up and expanding vulture care and Breeding centre  E. Controlling further mortality F. Rising awareness among the users of veterinary formulation. G. Monitoring implementation of Action Plan. Result: The MoEFCC, with the coordination of State Forest Departments and Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), took measures to implement the Action Plan and succeeded in arresting the decline in the vulture Populations by 2011. Important actions under this Action plan : a.Banned the veterinary use of diclofenac in the year 2006. A gazette was published in the year 2008 based on scientific evidence. b.In 2015, restricted the vial size of the human formulation of diclofenac to prevent its misuse in treating cattle. c.The Central Zoo Authority (CZA) and BNHS led the establishment of the Vulture Conservation Breeding Programme. The Programme has been very successful; all the three Critically Endangered resident Gyps species have been bred for the first time ever in captivity. d.Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) led a research study to identify a safe alternative to diclofenac. Meloxicam & tolfenamic acid was proved to be safe for vultures and was promoted as an alternative to diclofenac. e.Vulture Safe Zone programme is being implemented at eight different places in the country. Shortcomings: The rate of the recent population decline was much more rapid than the fastest possible rate of increase. Action Plan for Vulture Conservation 2020-2025 (APVC) : The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) in the Year 2020 launched ‘Action Plan for Vulture Conservation 2020-2025 (APVC)’. The plan was approved by the National Board for Wildlife on October 5, 2020 Objectives: a) Strict monitoring of diclofenac usage. b) To establish additional Conservation Breeding Centres in the country.They also serve as Vulture Conservation Centres. c) To launch conservation plans for the Red-headed and Egyptian vultures, with breeding programmes for both. d) Four rescue centres have been proposed for different Geographical areas like Pinjore in the north, Bhopal in Central India, Guwahati in Northeast India and Hyderabad in South India.  e) It is proposed to have at least one vulture safe zone in Each State for the conservation of the remnant populations in that State. f) It is proposed to gather information of other emerging threats to vulture conservation such as-Collision and electrocution, Unintentional poisoning of carcasses. Vulture Conservation Breeding Programme Vulture Safe Zone programme The role of vultures in ecosystem : They are nature’s most efficient scavengers and can finish off a carcass of an adult cattle in a matter of Minutes. The vultures once kept the environment clean in India in the absence of any effective carcass and slaughter house waste disposal System. They prevented the outbreak of epidemics by cleaning the carcasses before pathogenic bacteria and fungus could grow and multiply on them. The vultures are known to feed on rotting and putrefied flesh without any adverse effect on them. Now, with the absence of vultures, the accumulation of livestock carcasses may have implications for groundwater safety and for livestock-borne diseases such as Tuberculosis and anthrax. With the decline in the numbers of resident vulture species, there is now an abundance of food. Concurrently, and probably in response to the increased food availability, there appears to be an increase in resident feral dog populations, which could have serious consequences for human and wildlife health as dogs are carriers of several diseases that affect human beings, wildlife and livestock, including rabies, distemper and canine parvovirus. India has the highest incidences of rabies in humans in the world, with the majority of these from dog bites. Cultural and Religious significance in India Parsees, ritualized the practice of putting out the dead for scavengers by building ‘towers of silence’ to limit access to corpses exclusively to airborne scavenger. Collecting cattle bones for the fertilizer industry was an Age old trade and vultures effectively and rapidly ‘cleaned’ skeletons of all soft material and facilitated the bone collectors’ job. Vulture Conservation Breeding Programme : At present, India has four vulture breeding facilities at Rani, Guwahati (Assam),Pinjore (Haryana),Buxa (West Bengal), and Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh). The BNHS and Royal Society for Protection of Birds (RSPB) have been managing the above four Jatayu conservation breeding centres across the country in partnership with above State governments.Through this conservation breeding programme, the BNHS-RSPB has bred more than 700 birds in captivity since 2004. There are four more centres that are managed by the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) in Junagarh in Gujarat, Nandankanan in Orissa, Hyderabad in Telangana and Muta in Ranchi. Jatayu Conservation Breeding Centre, Pinjore : The world’s largest facility for the breeding and conservation of Indian vultures It is located within the Bir Shikargah Wildlife Sanctuary in the town of Pinjore in the State of Haryana It is run by the Haryana Forests Department and Bombay Natural History Society with the help of British nature conservation charity Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. It was established in 2001 as Asia’s first vulture breeding facility. It is working on the following four vulture species, three critically endangered and one threatened, for breeding and conservation.  Critically endangered species a) Indian vulture b) Slender-billed vulture c) White-rumped vulture Near Threatened -Himalayan vulture Vulture Safe Zones : A Vulture Safe Zone (VSZ) is a geographical area of at least 100 Km radius, which is designated as natural habitat of wild vultures and is made free of the presence of the drug diclofenac in animal carcasses. Current Affairs: 1.World’s First Asian King Vulture Conservation Centre : Recently, Uttar Pradesh has established the world’s first conservation and breeding center for Asian king vultures in Maharajganj district. Asian king vultures (also called red-headed vulture/Indian black vulture or Pondicherry vulture) are critically endangered since 2017 2.Vulture Count 2024 : WWF-India launched the “Vulture Count 2024” project from September 7 to October 6, 2024. This initiative aligns with International Vulture Awareness Day. The project aims to count and assess the vulture population in India. It focuses particularly on critically endangered vulture species. The project also seeks to raise public awareness about the importance of vultures in ecosystems. First Saturday of September ( September 7 , 2024) is International Vulture Awareness Day. 3.Moyar Valley : It Hosts the critically endangered Gyps Vulture. Located within the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. This region boasts the largest nesting colony of Gyps vultures in peninsular India. 4.Vulture Restaurant in Jharkhand : In January 2024, A ‘Vulture Restaurant’ has been established in Koderma,Jharkhand, as a conservation initiative for the declining vulture population.  The first ‘vulture restaurant’ was established in 2015 at Phansad Wildlife Sanctuary in Raigad, Maharashtra. Maharashtra has four other such restaurants, all within the state. 2. Arabian Sea Humpback Whale The humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) is a species of baleen whale. It is the only species in the genus Megaptera. Humpback whales have a near cosmopolitan distribution, absent only from some enclosed seas and parts of the High Arctic. The humpback whale population in the Arabian Sea (northern Indian Ocean) is the smallest and most endangered humpback whale population in the world. IUCN Red List : least-concern, with a worldwide population of around 135,000 whales, of which around 84,000 are mature individuals, and there is an increasing population trend. They are "gulp feeders", taking in a single mouthful of food at a time, rather than the continuous filter-feeding of right whales and bowhead whales. Humpback whales typically migrate up to 16,000 km (9,900 mi) each year. It is threatened by entanglement in fishing gear, collisions with ships, and noise pollution