Vultures In India
- March 20, 2022
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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Vultures In India
Subject: Environment
Context- Locals found the dead bodies of more than 95 Himalayan griffon vultures and a steppe eagle in the Chaiygaon area of Milanpur village in Assam’s Kamrup district March 17, 2022.
Concept-
About Vultures:
- It is one of the 22 species of large carrion-eating birds that live predominantly in the tropics and subtropics.
- They act an important function as nature’s garbage collectors and help to keep the environment clean of waste.
- Vultures also play a valuable role in keeping wildlife diseases in check.
- India is home to 9 species of Vulture namely the Oriental white-backed, Long-billed, Slender-billed, Himalayan, Red-headed, Egyptian, Bearded, Cinereous and the Eurasian Griffon.
- Most of these 9 species face danger of extinction.
- Bearded, Long-billed, Slender-billed, Oriental white-backed are protected in the Schedule-1 of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972. Rest are protected under ‘Schedule IV’.
Vulture Conservation: Vulture Action Plan 2020-25:
- The Ministry for Environment, Forests and Climate Change launched a Vulture Action Plan 2020-25 for the conservation of vultures in the country.
- It will ensure minimum use of Diclofenac and prevent the poisoning of the principal food of vultures, the cattle carcasses.
- The Vulture Safe Zone programme is being implemented at eight different places in the country where there were extant populations of vultures, including two in Uttar Pradesh.
- To upscaling conservation four rescue centres will be opened like
- Pinjore in the north,
- Bhopal in central India,
- Guwahati in Northeast and
- Hyderabad in South India.
- To study the cause of deaths of vultures in India, a Vulture Care Centre (VCC) was set up at Pinjore, Haryana in 2001.
- Later in 2004, the VCC was upgraded to being the first Vulture Conservation and Breeding Centre (VCBC) in India.
- At present, there are nine Vulture Conservation and Breeding Centres (VCBC) in India, of which three are directly administered by the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS).
More: https://optimizeias.com/action-plan-for-vulture-conservation-for-2020-2025/