Urgent call to make Maharashtra ‘safe zone’ after Tadoba vulture deaths

Nagpur: The death of three white-rumped vultures (WRVs) in Tadoba on Wednesday has spurred calls for Maharashtra govt to work hard on declaring the state as a ‘vulture safe zone' to aid the protection and conservation efforts of the prey birds.Under the vulture reintroduction project, a joint venture of the Maharashtra forest department and Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), 10 WRVs were released in a pre-aviary in Tadoba on August 3, 2023, and 10 long-billed vultures in Pench Tiger Reserve, Maharashtra, on August 10, 2023. The birds included five males and five females.The captive-bred birds, brought from BNHS Jatayu Vulture Conservation Breeding Centre, Pinjore (Chandigarh), were GPS tagged and released into the wild in January 2024. Days after their release, some vultures tried to explore newer areas in search of food and reached Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Telangana, Karnataka, and Madhya Pradesh, while some frequented the aviary and were fed by the tiger reserves.On Wednesday, three of the Tadoba vultures died, raising concerns about whether the birds died due to painkiller drugs given to livestock. The vultures in Tadoba are fed on goat, cattle, or tiger kills once every 7–10 days if they do not find natural wild carcasses.Two of the bird carcasses were shifted to Nagpur Veterinary College (NVC) for post-mortem, where Dr Prashant Sonkusre, assistant professor with the pathology department, Dr Sadanand Sontakke, senior scientist, Neeri, and Tadoba vet Dr Ravikant Khobragade performed the post-mortem.The post-mortem report did not find any malicious poisoning, but it was found the vultures died of kidney and liver failure. The samples for virology, pathology, microbiology, toxicity, and malicious poisoning have been collected and sent to NVC, Regional Forensic Lab, Nagpur, and Neeri. The report is expected on Monday.Of the 10 vultures, Tadoba is left with only one now. Two birds (J-73 and J-76) are missing, while others migrated to various states. Earlier, two Pench vultures died on September 12 in Narsinghpur and another on October 1 in Balaghat, both in MP, due to alleged starvation.It seems the vultures are moving long distances in search of food but have failed to find it. On Wednesday, one bird was captured near Kanhan-Kandri mines, 20km from Nagpur, in critical condition by volunteers of the Wildlife Welfare Society and handed over to Transit Treatment Centre, Nagpur.Talking to TOI, BNHS director Kishor Rithe said, "We need to find out the exact cause of death. Vultures that feed on the carcasses of livestock treated with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs a few days before their death will most likely die."Rithe advocated vulture-safe zones to ensure the conservation of the endangered birds that were on the brink. Diclofenac, a painkiller drug used to treat domestic cattle, was responsible for the death of 99% of the Indian vulture population. Hence, in 2006, the govt banned the use of diclofenac. Consequently, a slow rise in the vulture population is now observed.Former State Board for Wildlife member Kundan Hate demanded to restart ‘vulture restaurants', where carcasses of cattle were dumped earlier as feed for vultures in Gadchiroli. Closure of these restaurants has led to a decline in the vulture population in Gadchiroli. Such restaurants should be started in the buffer zones of Tadoba and Pench, he said.