Breeding vultures for the Parsis’ World !

As the vultures in the Indian sky are missing, the Parsi people living in the country remained worried, of course for a religious reason. The Parsis, who fled Persia-the present-day Iran-centuries back after Islamic uprising practise the religion of Zoroastrianism.

According to their religious practice, the dead bodies cannot be buried or burnt because the corpses could pollute the Panchabhootam (earth, water, air, ether and fire). Hence their bodies are left in a high-rise ‘Tower of Silence ’ to be consumed by the scavengers. “Unfortunately the vultures have disappeared from our region and a sustained breeding project for vultures has become essential,” said Khojeste P. Mistree of the World Alliance of Parsi and Irani Zoroastrians.

Nearly 100,000 Parsi people live in major Indian cities like Mumbai, Hyderabad and Kolkata and they have made India their permanent homeland.

Speaking to this writer, Mistree also added, “The vulture happens to have been the first scavenger of the world and hence they should be brought back for a sustained ecological balance.”

If not for the Parsis, the government and non-government agencies and organizations in India have come forward to bring back the scavenging birds surely for the ecological cause.

The vulture eat the carcasses of livestock and wildlife (and normally does not hunt living animals). The scavenging birds that way help in keeping the environment clean. Unlike the dog or the crow, the vulture eats the flesh of carcasses completely and cleanly. The birds thus prevent the spreading of some severe diseases like rabies and anthrax among the wildlife, livestock and also the human beings. The scientist and environmentalists apprehend that after Pakistan and Nepal the vulture population in India has declined by more than 97 per cent in the last few years.

In India there were about 40 million vultures in early eighties, but a survey conducted by Mumbai Natural History Society in 2007 revealed that there remained nearly 11,000 white-backed vultures, 1000 slender-billed vultures and 44,000 long-billed vultures in the country, said Dr Vibhu Prakash, the principal scientist for the vulture conservation breeding programme at BNHS, Mumbai. Statistics reveal that India has nine species of vultures in the wild including the Oriental White-backed Vulture, Long-billed Vulture, Slender-billed Vulture, Egyptian Vulture, Red-headed Vulture, Indian Griffon Vulture, Himalayan Griffon, Cinereous Vulture and Bearded Vulture.

Among them, the white-backed, long-billed and slender-billed vultures are recognized as critically endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. More over, they are listed as Schedule I species in the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, which is applicable to the tiger and one-horned rhino also.

Rapid urbanization, destruction of habitat (primarily the loss of high-rise trees, where the vultures go for nesting) and many other modern day factors (like the rampant use of pesticides-DDT, hitting aircraft, other moving objects in the sky, electric lines and even poisoning of vultures in some cases) have caused the decline of vulture population in South and Southeast Asia.

A matured vulture may weigh up to 10kgs and it needs almost half-a-kg meat everyday. And the most common theory emerges from here that vultures die of eating toxic meat with high percentage of diclofenac residue.

It may be mentioned that diclofenac is a commonly used veterinary drug. Scientists suspect that the diclofenac remains active for a longer period in the carcasses of those treated animals, which finally affects vultures, as they consume the meat. The drugs reportedly cause dehydration of the vultures and soon they die of visceral gout and even kidney failure.

The BNHS started launching a rigorous campaign against the diclofenac since 2003. India introduced the drugs in 1993. Following the BNHS initiative and the long standing demand from environment and animal protection groups, New Delhi banned the manufacture and importation of diclofenac for veterinary purposes in 2006. Later Nepal and Pakistan also banned it.

With an aim to preserve the vultures, the BNHS propagated the concept of captive breeding as the only viable option to save the creatures. Dr Prakash highlighted that considering the fast declination of vultures and also the availability of diclofenac in the markets, the conservation breeding programme appears to be the only way of saving the species.

“By bringing some vultures in captivity, the life of these vultures is saved and once they start breeding, they would augment their population. The vultures will be released back in the wild once we are sure that there is no diclofenac available in system,” he narrated. The century old BNHS, whish is recognized as one of the most reputed wildlife research organisations in South Asia , has already taken initiatives for the captive breeding programmes.

With the permission from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (GoI) and supports from a number of international funding organizations like Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (UK), Zoological Society of London , Peregrine Fund (US), the BNHS runs three vulture conservation breeding centres at Pinjore of Haryana, Rajabhatkhawa of West Bengal and Rani of Assam.

But many donot subscribe the theory of captive breeding of vultures. Dr. Anil Kumar Chhangani, a wildlife expert from Department of Zoology, JNV University, Jodhpur, also expressed skepticism at the process of vulture captive breeding as there was no such expertise among Indian organizations.

He cautioned, "Authorities must plan well while selecting the breeding stock for captive breeding. Birds most suitable for the purpose should be selected, rather than unsystematically and unscientifically collecting chicks from their natural habitat, disturbing natural breeding."

Anil, who was associated with IUCN Birds and Mammals Breeding Specialist Group reiterated, "The captive breeding should not be the only way to conserve vultures. Rather a countrywide rescue programme for the vultures should be encouraged."

Similarly, Soumyadeep Datta, an environmental activist of Assam argues that the captive breeding of vultures would result nothing. "The matured vultures select their partners in the wild for breeding and the birds lay eggs in such a situation, which cannot be arranged in the captivity. Only one egg is expected from a pair in one season. The caring mother continues its close bond with the baby till the chick attains maturity by five years. For any reason, vultures do not go for mating with other species," analyzed Datta, who serves as the director of Nature's Beckon, a Northeast based environmental NGO. Datta, while talking to this writer also asserted that the indiscriminate lifting of chicks, as done by the BNHS people in Assam, from the nests would only disrupt the male-female ratio of the vultures. He also claimed that unlike the other parts of India, the population of white-backed vulture and long-billed vultures have been stable if not increased in the State. The natural breeding process of vultures is continuing in Assam, he claimed.

Even many Mumbai Parsis initially planned for a scheme to breed vultures in the captivity. However, Minal Shroff, the chairman of the Bombay Parsee Panchayat, which runs the Tower of Silence, admitted that scientists studying the proposal shelved it, saying ‘it will not be possible since vultures appear to be particularly susceptible to diclofenac’.

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The author is a Guwahati (India) based independent journalist and can be contacted at navathakuria@yahoo.com

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