.........ANGUL: THERE has been a growing concern across the country over the fast dwindling population of vultures. Gone are the days when we found vultures in groups flying in the sky or fighting for a carcass. The bird is nowhere in sight in the State though it thrives in small numbers in the countryside, according to wildlife activists.


Their population has drastically come down by a whopping 95 per cent in India. Vultures are branded as critically endangered species which requires conservation efforts to save them from extinction.

Wildlife activists attribute several factors for the dwindling population. The major factor being presence of ‘Diclofenac Sodium’ drug in livestock that accumulates in the kidneys of vultures when they feed on carcasses and eventually leads to their death. Diclofenac has been banned in veterinary practice now.

The Central Government, however, of late has also formulated an ‘Action Plan for Vulture Conservation in India’ in 2006, which provides for strategies and actions for containing the decline of vulture population. Vulture Breeding Centres have been set up at Pinjore in Haryana, Buxa in Assam and Raja Bhat Khawa in West Bengal.

In addition, captive breeding centres at four zoos _ Bhopal, Bhubaneswar - Nandankanan, Junagarh and Hyderabad _ have also been set up through Central Zoo Authority. An exclusive recovery programme for vultures has been launched by the Central Government in 2009 for providing financial and technical support for vulture conservation to State governments, according to Prasanna Behera, a wildlife expert. Nandankanan authorities are yet to implement the conservation and breeding works of the vultures, said Behera.

For vulture conservation and awareness, the Nature Environment and Wildlife Society (NEWS) here has been organising conservation campaigns in different parts of the Protected Areas of Orissa to highlight the importance of vultures in ecological balance.