Vulture Conservation

Threats:
- Poisoning from diclofenac that is used as a medicine for livestock.
- Loss of Natural Habitats due to anthropogenic activities.
- Food Dearth and Contaminated Food.
- Electrocution by Power lines.
Conservation Efforts
- By India:
  - The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) launched a Vulture Action Plan 2020-25 for the conservation of vultures in the country.
  - To study the cause of deaths of vultures in India, a Vulture Care Centre (VCC) was set up at Pinjore, Haryana in 2001.
  - Later in 2004, the VCC was upgraded to being the first Vulture Conservation and Breeding Centre (VCBC) in India.
  - At present, there are nine Vulture Conservation and Breeding Centres (VCBC) in India, of which three are directly administered by the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS).
- International:
  - SAVE (Saving Asia’s Vultures from Extinction):
    - The consortium of like-minded, regional and international organisations, created to oversee and coordinate conservation, campaigning and fundraising activities to help the plight of south Asia’s vultures.
    - Objective: To save three critically important species from extinction through a single programme.

Previous Year Questions:

Q 1.) Vultures which used to be very common in the Indian countryside some years ago are rarely seen nowadays. This is attributed to (2012)

(a) the destruction of their nesting sites by new invasive species

(b) a drug used by cattle owners for treating their diseased cattle

(d) a widespread, persistent and fatal disease among them.

Ans: (b)