PANAJI: Goa has taken initial steps in conservation of vultures which were once visible in the state and then disappeared mysteriously after the 1980s leaving birders wondering about their fate.
In an important recent move to help conservation efforts, the directorate of animal husbandry and veterinary services (AHVS) has urged the food and drugs administration (FDA) department to consider a ban on veterinary ketoprofen and aceclofenac for treatment of livestock animals in Goa.
Both these substances are non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and are used by veterinarians to treat pain, injuries and certain ailments in cattle, goats and other animals. NSAIDs are considered highly toxic to vultures and scavenging raptors and it has been so indicated in research pointing to the sharp decline in population of three scavengers, including vultures in south Asia. In India, too, the drastic loss in numbers of vultures a couple of decades back has been documented by researchers.
Goa had a small population of these carnivorous birds, especially the Egyptian vultures which were mostly spotted near the Goa meat complex (GMC) at Usgao.
They were known to feast on the slaughtered cattle waste dumped outside the meat complex. This practice has now been stopped since a while. Enterprising tour organizers had even taken to showing the vultures flock at their roosting site - a cluster of tall trees to tourists, near the complex in the late 1980s.
The request to FDA follows a communication from department of animal husbandry and dairying (DAHD), New Delhi after a Rajasthan-based senior wildlife researcher, Dau Lal Bohra petitioned the central government against the veterinary use of NSAIDs.
“We have received a communication from DAHD and our department has sent a letter to FDA for necessary action,” Dr Santosh Desai, director AHVS said.
The Centre has drawn up a Rs 207-crore vulture conservation plan 2020-25 to reverse the extinction of three highly threatened species - the Oriental white-backed vulture (Gyps Bengalensis), slender-billed vulture (Gys tenuirostris) and long-billed vulture (Gyps indicus).
The sudden disappearance of these rapacious birds, who are known to have amazing eyesight and sense of smell, still rankles Goan birders, as an entire class of birds is missing from Goa. “Vultures are not found in Goa and the rest of coastal western India. Ostensibly, they came to feed on carcasses and meat waste, which were disposed of in the open air behind the meat complex,” Savio Fonseca, chief naturalist at a bird tourism company said.
In recent years only a few sightings have been reported in the state. “They were sighted in western ghats, especially Mhadei till introduction of diclofenac (used to treat pain and inflammatory diseases) in the 1980s affected their population. The dumping of meat waste in the open has also stopped,” Prasanna Parab, a birder said. India quickly banned diclofenac in 2006 after the disastrous impact of its use in poisoning cattle, which the large bird of prey feeds on, became evident.
Fonseca said that these birds require a big animal carcass with substantial quantities of meat to feed on. “In western India there are fewer elephants or other animals,” he said. A Verna-based birder, Justino Rebello sighted a vagrant Egyptian vulture and another birder, Vivek Naik spotted one in Velim on the Verna plateau in November 2020. “After it was attacked by black kites it settled on an old structure. When it started flying, I could get good photographs of it in flight. I was surprised that it was an Egyptian vulture,” Rebello said.
Some argue that the government itself should ban the toxic veterinary drugs instead of relying on states to do it. But R P Gupta, secretary, ministry of environment and forests unwittingly reveals the government’s passivity. “Banning vulture toxic drugs is cumbersome and time-consuming. So it is better to be judicious in using the drugs…” he states in the foreword to the action plan 2020-25.
“If a couple of states take an initiative like Goa, then the centre may also consider some action and it would be useful for vulture conservation in southern part of India,” Bohra said, suggesting that Goa could be woven into the plan. “Goa has good climate and bird diversity. This induces migration of vultures and raptors from nearby Maharashtra and Karnataka to Goa,” he said.