Compensating farmers, establishing cafeterias for vulture conservation in state: Gujarat Government

Compensating farmers for the losses they incur after vultures construct nests of their farms and constructing cafeterias or platforms the place animal carcasses might be saved for the winged scavengers to feed on, are a number of the steps being taken by the state authorities to assist preserve vultures, whose numbers have been dwindling for the previous few many years, the Gujarat Assembly was informed throughout the ongoing price range session.
In response to an unstarred query on the standing of vulture inhabitants in Gujarat by Congress MLA Kantibhai Parmar, the state authorities, in a written reply, acknowledged the vulture inhabitants dropped from 999 in 2016 to 819 in 2018 when the final survey of the birds was carried out. This is an 18 per cent decline within the vulture inhabitants in simply two years.
According to a vulture census, carried out by the state authorities over the previous twenty years, the chicken’s inhabitants in Gujarat was estimated to be 2,647 in 2005. It declined to 1,431 in 2007, 1,065 in 2010, 1,043 in 2012 and got here down to simply 999 people in 2016.
The highest variety of vultures are present in Junagadh (147 people), Anand (94), Bhavnagar (88), and Banaskantha (79) districts. In 2018, sizable numbers of the chicken had been present in Sabarkantha (63), Mehsana (59), Valsad (54), and Ahmedabad (50) districts. At least 15 districts, together with Bharuch, Navsari, Surat, and Vadodara, don’t have any resident vulture inhabitants.

Among the steps taken to assist in the restoration of the vulture inhabitants in Gujarat, the state authorities stated it’s making an attempt to create consciousness amongst cattle rearers to not use diclofenac – a drug utilized in treating cattle however thought of lethal for vultures. In 2004, Gujarat was among the many first states in India to ban using diclofenac.
The state stated additionally it is compensating farmers for losses brought about after vultures construct nests of their farms. It can be making an attempt to protect giant timber, which can be utilized by the birds to construct nests, and put up signages urging individuals to guard the species.

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The ‘Vultures, the Feathered Scavengers in Gujarat’, a e-book printed by Gujarat Ecological Education and Research (GEER) Foundation in 2019, notes that the state authorities is paying Rs 500 compensation per nest to farmers in case vultures construct nests on their coconut palms and destroy coconuts within the course of.
Shyamal Tikadar, the principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF) and chief wildlife warden of Gujarat, informed The Indian Express Tuesday, “We are also building vulture cafeterias which are fenced enclosures where carcasses are kept so that vultures can feed on them. One such cafeteria has been developed in Junagadh. To understand the ecology of these birds, we are satellite-tagging vultures. So far, we have satellite-tagged eight vultures.”
The GEER Foundation e-book, authored by GEER Foundation director RD Kamboj and GEER Foundation scientists Ketan Tatu and Sandeep Munjapara, data vulture cafeterias have been arrange in Bhavnagar, Kutch, and Surat districts. A Vulture Conservation and Breeding Centre can be functioning out of Sakkar Baug Zoo in Junagadh since 2009 and has efficiently overseen captive breeding of vultures.

The authorities additionally acknowledged that it’s mapping the nests of those birds, their feeding websites, night-halt websites and native water our bodies.
Bird Facts:
Of the 23 species of vultures, 9 species — white-rumped vulture (WRV), long-billed vulture (LBV), read-headed or king vulture (KV), Egyptian vulture (EV), Eurasian griffon (EG), Himalayan griffon (HG), cenereous vulture (CV) slender-billed vulture (SBV) and bearded vulture (BV) — are present in India. Except slender-billed and bearded vultures, the remaining are present in Gujarat.
Of the 819 vultures recorded throughout the 2018 Census, 352 had been WRV, 285 KV, 148 EV, and the remainder of different species.

The variety of vultures rose in eight districts with the biggest spike of 21 recorded in Anand district, in response to the 2018 Census. Their inhabitants declined in 13 districts — the most important drop of 63 birds was seen in Amreli district.