In your childhood, you must have read about the life cycle of humans and animals in books. But in the last few years, the number of vultures has decreased rapidly and the reason behind this is a medicine. Today we will tell you how the number of vultures has decreased.
Vulture
The number of vultures in the country is decreasing rapidly. Let us tell you that the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), India’s oldest biodiversity conservation group, had written a letter to the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) in March 2014. In this, the society had demanded a ban on three medicines being used for the treatment of animals, due to which vultures were dying in the country.
These medicines reduced the number of vultures
The letter warned that the excessive use of three non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) would destroy efforts to conserve vultures. These three drugs, aclofenac, ketoprofen and nimesulide, were introduced as an alternative to diclofenac. But due to the large scale deaths of vultures due to this, India banned its use for animals in the year 2006.
why did the vultures die
Chris Bowden, co-chair of the Vulture Specialist Group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), says that the deaths of vultures caused by non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are not directly visible. Because the birds die two to three days after consuming the medicine, according to him, India has reduced the mortality rate of vultures, but has not been able to stabilize the population yet.
Are vultures really going extinct?
Let us tell you that till the 1980s, it was very common to see vultures. According to Rinkita Gurav, Raptor Conservation Manager of World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) India, currently 8 species of vultures in the country are on the verge of extinction. According to the vulture census conducted by the intergovernmental organization Bird Life International, the total population of vultures in the country was more than 40,000 in 2003, which has come down to 18,645 in 2015.
According to the claim of India’s second National Vulture Conservation Action Plan (2020-25) released by MoEFCC, by 2013, this ratio has come down to below two percent in all parts except Rajasthan. Whereas in Rajasthan it still remains above five percent. According to the information, if the presence of diclofenac in animal carcasses comes below 1 percent, then the number of vultures can be considered safe.
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