Jatayu, a mythical demigod in the Ramayan, was a valorous vulture which went down fighting Ravan, who was carrying away Sita. Looking for her, Ram comes across the dying bird, with its wings chopped off, and urges it to rise. But it cannot, and he gives the bird moksha or liberation. Today, conservationists are hoping that their efforts to raise the number of vultures in India do not meet with Jatayu’s fate.
A bird’s eye view of the habitat
India’s only sanctuary for vultures in Ramanagara in Karnataka—known for a Ram temple—is one of the centres trying to revive the critically endangered species, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
The long-billed vulture (Gyps indicus), commonly known as the Indian vulture, survives mainly on bovine carcasses. This carrion bird plays a major role in the food chain by feeding on carcasses, thus preventing water and soil contamination and epidemics. Currently, there are seven long-billed vultures in the rocky hillocks of Ramanagara, which appeared as Ramgad in the Bollywood blockbuster Sholay. The Karnataka government declared the area a vulture sanctuary in 2012.
Long Billed Vulture
Since the 1990s, the population of the Indian vulture has fallen by almost 98 per cent—the fastest rate of population decline among birds in history. Environmentalists say the Ravan in this tragedy is the anti-inflammatory veterinary drug diclofenac. The drug, which remains in the carcasses of cattle, enters the vultures’ systems, and causes renal failure within 48 hours.
India banned the drug in 2006, but it is easily available in the black market. Activists are trying to promote alternatives such as meloxicam, which is relatively less harmful to vultures but more expensive. “More awareness about the threat to vultures has to be spread among local vets and cattle-rearers,” says Chris Bowden, a globally threatened species officer for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, a UK-based NGO. Human disturbance near the vultures’ habitat is also a reason for the dwindling population, says Bowden, who is currently working at Ramanagara.
Though Nimesulide is now used as an alternative for diclofenac, there are attempts to find safer options.
The long-billed vulture, along with white-rumped (Gyps bengalensis) and slender-billed (Gyps tenuirostris) species, comes under Schedule One of the Wildlife Act—the same classification that guarantees maximum legal protection to tigers.
The vultures, which are mostly monogamous, lay only one egg a year, making the regeneration process slow. And the chicks take five years to become breeding adults.
The situation is so grave that Parsis—a dwindling community that believes in ‘sky burial’—have been forced to look at alternative funeral methods such as cremation. Usually, the Zoroastrian community leaves dead bodies in its Towers of Silence for vultures to feed on, and liberate the soul.
The Ramadevarabetta Vulture Sanctuary, however, provides hope. Local activists and the forest department have come up with revival plans and restricted human activity in the 346.14-hectare sanctuary.
A conservationist demonstrates the importance of vultures to kids.
One such keen activist is self-styled naturalist Shashi Kumar of Ramanagara. Every morning he visits the sanctuary, and focuses his binoculars on the rocky cliffs. As I click his pics, his expression turns from curious to anxious. The vultures are not there at their usual nesting place, a naturally formed ledge, where they sit like meditating monks—a sight that made me fall in love with them. It has been two days since they were last seen, he says, poignantly.
Shashi Kumar surveys the skies for returning vultures.
“Every time I see the nest empty, my heart skips a beat,” says Shashi, as he settles down under a tree, where he would camp the whole day, waiting for the vultures that would have flown hundreds of kilometres foraging to return. Will they?
