According to the Action Plan for Vulture Conservation 2020-2025, five vulture conservation and breeding centres are being set up. These are being set up in Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
Among the Northeast state the Vulture Conservation and breeding Centre is being established at Padmabill in western Tripura’s Khowai district to facilitate conservation of the critically endangered species in northeastern states of india so that the ecosystem remain healthy.
Padmabill was selected for the ‘Vulture Conservation and Breeding Centre’ as the area had a higher concentration of vultures. Recently, around 30-40 vultures were sighted in the Khowai district.
Veteran wildlife and biodiversity expert Dvijendra Kumar Sharma said that the conservation programme appears to be the only preservation action which could save the vultures from extinction.
In a statement Sharma said, “The establishment of a long-term conservation breeding programme is the only possible way of reintroducing the vultures in the wild, so that they could play their ecological role in the environment. The conservation breeding centres have been set up by the State Governments with the help of the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS),” Sharma told IANS.
In addidtion to the species Sharma said that India has nine species of vultures in the wild, of which five belong to the genus Gyps. Three Gyps vultures – the Oriental White-backed Vulture, Long-billed Vulture and Slender-billed Vulture – are residents and the remaining two, the Eurasian Griffon and Himalayan Griffon, are largely wintering species and a small population breeds in the Himalayas.
Another wildlife expert Prasenjit Biswas, who has been studying the movements and traits of vultures for over a decade, said that the vultures are also listed in Schedule-I of the Indian Wildlife Protection Act (1972), which is the highest category of protection for wildlife in the country.
Vultures are the most efficient scavengers. Decline in the vultures population will have several negative impacts on our life like increase in water pollution, increase in population of rabid dogs etc. official said.
According to the India State of Forest Report 2021 (ISFR 2021) released in January this year, the forest cover in the 140 hill districts of the country has shown a decrease of 902 sq km (0.32 per cent) with all eight States of the Northeastern region also showing a decline.
The Vulture conservation program started in 2006 by the government . The program was planned till 2020. As a result of this program the vulture population has stabilized. Ministry of environment forest and climate change has decided to extend the program till 2025. This will be known as Vulture conservation program 2.0(from 2020 to 2025). Under it focus will be on increasing the population vultures.
