Community’s conservation effort increases vulture population

A small village in Maharashtra’s Raigad district is on its way to revive its vulture population. The collective efforts of the villagers and conservation organizations have seen the local vulture population in Chirgaon village rise to 249 this year, from 22 in 1999-2000 when nationally, the vulture population was sharply declining.

In the 1980s, India was home to around 40 million vultures, three species primarily – white-backed, long-billed and slender-billed. By 2017, that number had declined to 19,000. The sharp slide – as much as 90% in some species – prompted the government to launch the National Vulture Conservation Action Plan 2020-25 in 2019. The conservation plan looks to halt this decline and increase the number by 2025.

Population decline

“There are nine recorded species in India – the oriental white-backed, long-billed, slender-billed, Himalayan, red-headed, Egyptian, bearded, cinereous and the Eurasian griffon. Some are migratory, others are endemic. In the 80s, they were seen in cities and rural areas, perched on trees, electric poles, cliffs and housetops, or feasting on carcasses,” said Ajay Kamath, a Mumbai-based wildlife researcher.

By 2007, their numbers plummeted to near extinction. The crash in numbers was particularly catastrophic for three of India’s vulture species – the long-billed (Gyps indicus), the slender-billed (G. tenuirostris) and the white-rumped (G. bengalensis).

“Apart from rapid habitat loss and starvation due to smaller foraging grounds, one main reason for the decline was poisoning by the diclofenac drug found in animal carcasses,” said Premsagar Mestri, founder of Society of Eco-Endangered Species Conservation and Protection (SEESCAP), an NGO that protects vultures.

The veterinary nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug is used to treat pain and inflammatory diseases such as gout. “Just 0.4-0.7% of animal carcasses contaminated with diclofenac was sufficient to decimate 99% of vulture populations,” said Prakash Javadekar, former Union Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change, in Parliament, while talking about the need for the Vulture Action Plan 2020-25.

Challenges

Like the rest of the country, in Chirgaon too, the vulture population was on the decline at the time. Only 22 vultures belonging to two species that are typically found in the area – the white-rumped vulture and the long-billed vulture – were surviving in a handful of nests.

Mestri, a native of Mahad in Raigad district, with the help of fellow bird enthusiasts and local villagers, initiated the process of identifying the cause for the fall in numbers. “We found that deforestation had resulted in the loss of habitat, especially when tall trees where vultures built their nests were cut down,” he said.

“It also reduced their foraging grounds, often leading to starvation. Vultures feed on dead animals and are nature’s cleansers. The state government’s policies, to bury or dispose of dead animals to keep villages clean, also had an impact on their numbers,” said Mestri.

Another factor hindered the growth of their population. “Vultures breed once a year and produce one chick. If the chick fails to survive for any reason, an entire generation is lost,” said Kamath. Surprisingly, the team also found that the drug diclofenac had no role to play in their decline in the area.

Community involvement

Once the causes were identified, SEESCAP members started surveying in and around the village to identify areas that needed to be protected. Over the next five years, the organization worked with the villagers to plant around 50,000 trees. “Getting the community involved was critical to ensure that these areas would remain protected and become habitable zones for these critically endangered birds,” said Mestri.

Vultures feed on animal carcasses. So, a network was established within the nearby villages to ensure that food was made available to the birds. “We requested anyone who spotted a carcass to inform us. Villagers received remuneration for any cattle or animal handed over to us,” said Mestri. They also created awareness about the importance and benefit of vultures in the ecosystem.

Villagers were taught to monitor the health of the vultures. Special attention was paid to breeding pairs and newborn chicks. “If we felt that the young chicks weren’t getting enough food, we bought meat from the nearby markets and left it in the feeding zone,” said Mestri.

“If the chicks fell from the nest while learning to fly, we rescued and nurtured them. They were released only after they were two months old and weighed 2.5 kilos,” he said. School children were also roped in to monitor vultures during summer when the team visited other areas in the region to survey the vulture population there.

Such interventions saw the vulture population in the region rise to 347 by 2019. Soon, bird enthusiasts began to frequent the area. Chirgaon found a place on the tourist map. As word spread about their conservation efforts, more villagers began helping out and the network grew. Other villages in the region also began to take vulture conservation seriously.

Work in progress

There have been setbacks though. When cyclone Nisarg hit the coasts of Maharashtra in 2019, large vulture habitats were damaged. Chicks were lost and their population declined to 247. COVID-19 also had an impact. “People stopped travelling during the first lockdown. Information on nests, carcasses or vultures that needed rescuing stopped coming in,” said Mestri.

Mestri added that it was a tough period. But conservation efforts persist. Chirgaon continues to attract researchers, bird conservators and tourists from around India, all of them wanting to understand the work done.

“The hope is that just like how the vulture population here has made a comeback, they will show similar resilience in other parts of the country with just a little intervention from us,” said Shweta Sharma, a wildlife enthusiast who travelled from Uttarakhand to Raigad to see the vulture population.

Sneha Mahale is a journalist based at Lucknow. Views are personal.

This was first published in Mongabay India. The original story can be read here.