[ad_1]
, Edited by Shruti Sundar Ray
| Coimbatore |
November 15, 2020 12:12:33 pm
“Please don’t mention the exact place where I saw them. If we let people know, at least 500 of them would be here with cameras tomorrow and invade their privacy.” Santhana Raman, lawyer and hen fanatic, can’t management his pleasure when speaking about his sighting of a mature pair and a juvenile of the red-headed vulture species on his go to to the Moyar valley in the Nilgiris.
The sighting is ecologically important. The red-headed vulture (additionally known as Asian king vulture, Indian black vulture or Pondicherry vulture) is critically endangered and finds place in the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.
“Since there are only a handful of red-headed vultures living in Moyar valley, this juvenile is a healthy sign,” Raman tells indianexpress.com. Although Raman’s sighting befell in September, ecologists have seen the small household of red-headed vultures repeatedly, indicating a nesting web site in the Moyar valley.
“Red-headed vultures were widely distributed all over the subcontinent a few decades back, but now, their population has declined to two-digit numbers,” defined Raman.
The Moyar valley and the close by Sigur plateau in the Nilgiris, are amongst the few remaining locations in India the place vultures might be discovered. The area is house to 4 vulture species, together with the red-headed vulture.
Due to their look, a standard assumption is that vultures are bloodthirsty creatures. This is inaccurate — vultures are scavengers that eat animal carcasses. They normally monitor carnivores and feed on what predators kill.
Rotting our bodies are cleared up shortly by vultures, thus stopping the unfold of infections from dead animals to wholesome ones. Scavenging by vultures helps shield livestock populations.
But scavenging off carnivores’ kills has confirmed lethal for vultures.
“To take revenge on carnivores (that may have caused livestock loss), local people often poison the carrion of dead cattle and leave them for predators in the forest,” explains Dr B Ramakrishnan, who teaches wildlife biology at Government Arts College, Udhagamandalam. “They never thought it would hurt the scavengers.”
This oblique poisoning is the important explanation for vulture inhabitants decline in southern India.
It is completely different from the diclofenac poisoning that induced mass deaths of vultures in northern India. A painkiller for cows and different livestock, Diclofenac was discovered to be poisonous to vultures. It was later banned for veterinary use, to preserve vultures.
Although not focused at vultures, the poisoning in the Nilgiris is deliberate and requires a special conservation strategy.
“NGOs, bird enthusiasts, and the Forest Department are now trying to raise awareness about vultures among locals. The compensation package for cattle loss has also been increased by the government,” says Ramakrishnan.
Arulagam, an NGO, conducts puppet exhibits in tribal and different native hamlets to impress upon folks the want for conserving vultures.
“The dropping of these species is highly acidic and can harm vegetation. So, farmers push the vultures away. That is another reason for the population decline,” provides Bharathidasan, a founding father of Arulagam.
Red-headed vultures are thought of monogamous and lay just one egg at a time. Breeding requires excessive availability of meals, water, and nesting timber. With a rising apply of burying cattle corpses, low rainfall and dry streams, and lack of Neer Marudhu or Marudham timber (ideally suited for nesting), the breeding sample of vultures has modified. This hampers their inhabitants progress.
Responding to the downside, the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, masking Sigur and Moyar, has began conserving vulture nesting websites. It has constructed a small pond for watering and established feeding stations for nestlings, which regularly falls from the 40-foot Marudham tree whereas studying to fly. The Forest Department has planted Marudham saplings close to the Moyar river.
Also in the works, at the tiger reserve, is a vulture rescue, rehabilitation, and breeding centre.
With rising consciousness, the apply of poisoning dead cattle has come down in latest years. And the inhabitants of vultures in the area is progressively growing.
According to Bharathidasan at the least 400 pairs of wholesome adults are wanted to retain the species efficiently. “As of now, we have only 15–20 red-headed vultures. Protecting every single bird is important.”
© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd
[ad_2]
Source hyperlink