Praise for Governments in ‘Science’ article
South Asian Governments and NGO efforts are saving vultures and doing better than western
Governments in the past
Mumbai: 9th Feb: The vultures in South Asia have been under threat for over a decade now. But the
silver lining is that India has acted quickly to conserve this species, as compared to many western
countries in the past in the case of other environmental pollutants. A new research paper in “Science”
has observed that the central and state governments in India were quick enough to bring the vultures
back from the brink, with help of research institutions such as BNHS, under the SAVE (Saving Asia’s
Vultures from Extinction www.save-vultures.org) consortium. The paper further states that many
western countries have been much slower in acting upon the environmental impacts of pesticides that
were felt over decades, and were highlighted in Rachael Carson’s groundbreaking book – Silent Spring,
published 50 years ago!
Timely action
The paper published in the journal “Science” by Dr Andrew Balmford of Cambridge University gives a
perspective on the progress of vulture conservation in South Asia. It attributes the progress so far to the
quick response of the governments in the region to the vulture crises by banning veterinary diclofenac.
The paper, while documenting the turnaround story of vultures, praises the Indian Government for
timely action in saving the dying species, which would help maintain the balance of nature. The paper
added that the response of western governments was much slower in banning pesticide
organochlorides and DDT forty years ago. But in South Asia, the fact that vulture declines have
significantly slowed and possibly even reversed has been directly attributed to the prompt action over
the past decade.
Expressing satisfaction on the action taken by authorities in India so far, BNHS Director, Dr Asad
Rahmani said, ”The timely ban on veterinary diclofenac in South Asia, along with the research and
conservation efforts of BNHS and the SAVE partners, based on scientific facts has proved to be a
successful step in the right direction”.
Commenting on the issue author Dr Balmford said, "The vulture collapse is an immense problem - in its
sheer extent as well as in its significance for people. So news that the declines are beginning to slow and
even reverse is extremely welcome and a testament both to the tremendous hard work of all the NGOs
in the SAVE consortium and to the responsiveness of governments in the region."
The way ahead
However, it has to be noted that the job of saving the vultures is far from complete. Before the captive
bred vultures can be safely released back into the wild across South Asia, it needs to be ensured that the
countryside does not have diclofenac lingering in the food chain. Vulture Safe Zones (VSZs) need to be
identified in various regions. The recent SAVE meeting held in Kathmandu in November 2012 stressed
the need for preventing human diclofenac being used for veterinary purpose. This can be achieved by
packaging human diclofenac in smaller vials not larger than 3ml, which would be much less convenient
for using on cattle. Talking on the issue, Chris Bowden, Programme Manager, SAVE said, “Establishing a
safety-testing system for alternative veterinary drugs is essential since some of them are probably as
dangerous as diclofenac. Government action so far has been quite good and with the help of IVRI (Indian
Veterinary Research Institute), we hope that these last essential steps can also be taken”.
Background
Populations of the three Asian vulture species, viz. Oriental White-backed Vulture, Long-billed Vulture
and Slender-billed Vulture, declined by more than 99% in South Asia since the early 1990s. Veterinary
diclofenac had lethal effects on vultures that fed on cattle carcasses, which had been treated with the
drug shortly before death. The governments in South Asia subsequently banned the veterinary use of
the painkiller in 2006. Meanwhile, scientists from BNHS and RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of
Birds, UK), along with forest departments in various states of India have been successfully working on
vulture breeding, advocacy and field research such as carcass sampling. The SAVE consortium for efforts
across borders was set up in 2011 and subsequently a new Regional Steering Committee has been set up
by International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Indian Government. At present over
250 vultures are being nurtured in the three BNHS conservation breeding centres in India. In 2012, 26
new vultures were raised. In the wild, the latest trends suggest that the vulture decline has slowed since
2007 and White-backed Vulture numbers have even increased in some localised areas. For more
information do visit www.save-vultures.org and www.bnhs.org
--- Atul Sathe, Manager-Communications, BNHS
The link to the abstract of ‘Perspective’ by Andrew Balmford, after the
embargo lifts, will be:
http://www.sciencemag.org/lookup/doi/10.1126/science.1234193