KARACHI: A project to protect and conserve vulture population was launched on Monday in the Nagarparkar area of Tharparkar district at a ceremony held at the office of a non-governmental organisation.

The two NGOs collaborating in the project are the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Baanhn Beli.

According to an IUCN press release, speakers at the ceremony highlighted reasons for the disappearance of vulture — a large carnivore bird that is quite well known due to its scavenging nature.

“The principal reason for the rapid and alarming decline in the vulture population is the use of a pain-killer, diclofenac, normally administered to livestock, that also increases the recipient’s weight and milk producing capacity,” they said.

The drug, they said, had proved to be fatal for the internal organs of vultures, that scavenged on animal carcasses.

“A similar decline in vulture population has been seen in India, Nepal and several countries in Africa. In 2006, the Pakistan government had banned production and use of veterinary medicines containing diclofenac to save vulture population in this country but unauthorised human use of the drug continues, posing an abiding threat to this remarkable species,” said Nadeem Mirbahar representing the IUCN at the ceremony.

He informed the audience that the IUCN had set up its Asia regional steering committee on vultures in 2012 and the ministry of climate change also notified its national vulture recovery committee in the same year to ensure better IUCN-govt coordination for vulture conservation at the national level.

The adverse effects of the decline in vulture population had already been known, he said, adding that some of them were contamination of soil and water, infection in other animal species and human beings, increase in the number of feral dogs that fed on the dead animals and threaten human beings with infection.

Mr Mirbahar underlined the need for creating awareness of the bird’s importance that was usually looked down upon as an ugly, dirty and smelly creature.

Speaking on similar lines, Baanhn Beli president Dr Shankar Lal said that the bird had become a highly endangered species in Pakistan in recent years. Concerted efforts at the local, provincial, national and regional levels were required to prepare and implement an effective strategy for its protection and conservation, he stressed.

“Serving as a unique scavenger bird for 50 million years, the bird cleans the landscape from dead or rotting carcasses and is a vital link in the web of nature and ecosystems,” he observed.

According to him, the vulture population in Pakistan has steeply declined over the past two decades. Nagarparkar taluka is one of only two or three areas in the country where small colonies of vultures exist.

Over 200 residents of villages in Nagarparkar taluka participated in the launching ceremony, which was also attended by volunteer-leaders of Baanhn Beli and officials of the wildlife and forest departments as well as the local administration.

Those who spoke included Allah Rakhio Khoso, Faiz Mohammad Junejo, Mohammad Khan Marri, Shahnawaz Hingorjo, Ravi Shankar, Sikandar Ali, Suleman Khoso and Jahangir Chakki.

Published in Dawn, September 1st, 2015

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