Vulture conservation has been an integral part of wildlife conservation in India. Observing the decline in the vulture population (of which nine species have been reported in the wild of India), the country moved an IUCN motion in 2004 for vulture conservation. This resulted in the IUCN resolution, which “called upon Gyps vulture Range countries to begin action to prevent all uses of diclofenac in veterinary applications that allow diclofenac to be present in carcasses of domestic livestock available as food for vultures; establishment of IUCN South Asian Task Force under the auspices of the IUCN; Range countries to develop and implement national vulture recovery plans, including conservation breeding and release”.
The recovery of the vulture population needs a change in the mindset of land use planning and undertaking ex-situ conservation programs. A recent study argued that vultures' role in scavenging on this earth is at par with the breeding program for vultures (if not more). The study observed that the lifetime scavenging value of a vulture varied between USD 4457 to 4047 in urban India and between USD 3825 to 3357 in rural India at 2014–2015 prices. The scavenging value is observed in a semi-rural-urban setup. The management alternative for carcass disposal is available on land managed by authorities but is tricky where land-use management is not determined.
The resolution of the South Asian Task Force is comprehensive, where one of the identified threats was diclofenac, and many actions were oriented to prevent medicine in the market. A recent achievement in the same pattern was when the Indian government banned the use, sale, and manufacture of veterinary drugs - Ketoprofen and Aceclofenac- as they were proven fatal to vultures. Apart from prohibiting medicines that enter the food chain for the scavenger via carcass, India also worked towards developing breeding centres in Pinjore and, more recently, in Pingori. Limiting open carcass dumping as per Gram Swachata Abhiyan's initiatives is also being undertaken.
India took cognisance of the need to strategise the recovery plans and breed for the species while simultaneously gathering the baseline data across the country's forests. The All India tiger monitoring is one of the most extensive exercises for gathering information about tigers and their habitat across India's forests, involving trained researchers and the forest department. The data collection regarding vultures and their nest sighting was permanently embedded in the all-India Tiger monitoring census. While tremendous progress has been made in conservation programs (via monitoring and breeding programs), revisiting the action plans for states with a purview of land use and habitat management could have been improved. Telemetry is one technology which can give live information about spatial habitat usage by the vulture. In 2020-22, 25 individual vultures were tagged with solar GPS in Panna Tiger Reserve, making it the first in India. Other states, such as Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand, have also taken initiatives on this aspect.
Due to the presence of tiger and elephant reserves, Dehradun Valley has been a nodal point for wildlife conservation in Uttarakhand. The valley has records of three species of vultures: red-headed vulture, white-rumped vulture, and Egyptian vulture. In 2023, the Forest Department of Uttarakhand took the further initiative to study the ecology of vultures via tagging the species. The tagging of vulture species would help assess vultures' hotspots of habitat usage. It is observed that the nesting sites and habitats of vultures are mostly near a river or its tributaries. According to the drainage Master plan of Dehradun city, there are around “11 main drains (Nallahs) in the city through which most of the stormwater of Dehradun is discharged into the rivers Bindal and Rispana”. However, the dry river bed and land in the periphery of the channels are often used for certain extractive and dumping purposes but do not find their niche in city master plans. Since the impact of the activities on these lands is far from forest or urban management, the garbage and dumping grounds find easy access to such sites. This invites not only feral animals and raptors but wildlife like leopards and mesopredators, too. The linear infrastructure, often found along the periphery of the river channel, is the transmission line. The garbage dumping ground and transmission line overlap usually become a probable site for vultures (food and perching). However, the electrocution of vultures due to transmission lines is not a sudden feature. According to Population status and threat assessment of vulture species in Uttarakhand, India, the risk of electrocution mortality was a significant threat—about 54% of monitored carcass dumping sites near high-power transmission lines. As observed in the study, “49 Himalayan vultures, 1 Egyptian vulture and 21 Steppe eagles were found dead in such four sites of Dehradun and Haridwar districts “.
The deflectors for birds had been used in the transmission line to avoid bird mortality. On the policy level, the Honourable Supreme Court formed an expert committee to suggest areas for underground laying of power transmission lines in priority and potential Great Indian Bustard (GIS) habitats in Rajasthan and Gujarat. A transmission line underground has benefits, yet it has its brunt on cost. The other difference is the species referred for the decision. GIB is a very specialised species (concerning habitat and distribution), yet taking cable underground in its potential habitat is raising eyebrows. If we compare it with vulture, its habitat is diverse and often does not come under the purview of forest clearances (overlapping with fallow land categories). The mortality of vultures due to overlap with high-tension wires should be looked into not only via the lens of mitigation strategy but also via land-use planning. Identifying and including such areas in the city or district management plan should be prioritised. Also, since the prevention and management of zoonotic disease is becoming a priority of the Government, the carcass dumping site and vulture habitats should be better defined. The ecosystem's health has always relied on scavengers. In exchange of keeping our environment resilient, least we can do is conserve their habitat and do not allow Jatayu to fall again.
Written by Dr. Ridhima Solanki (WWF India)