• PAGE ONE
• INDEX
• HOME

Vultures no more

P.Devarajan

SOME two months ago Dr Mallikarjun S. Gaudar of Poultry Diagnostic Research Centre of Venkateswara Hatcheries in Pune made a trip to Bayana near Bharatpur to study the population density of the white-backed and long-billed vultures. He spotted a colony o f some 50 or 60 vultures down from a few thousands a couple of years ago.

After a two-day observation, Dr Gaudar found at least four of them with drooping necks and thought they were suffering from dehydration though there was no conclusive evidence. ``It could be probably due to dehydration following an attack of diarrhoea an d a virus could be behind all this,'' conjectures Dr Gaudar.

After some time they dropped dead. A four man-team under Dr G.R. Ghalsasi, General Manager, at the Poultry Diagnostic Research Centre (PDRC) and led by the Bombay Natural History Society have been doing research work to track down the virus which is fast doing away with the nature's best municipal servants and most graceful in flight.

The Vulture Disease Investigation Centre (VDIC) at the PDRC can be said to be doing some unique work on its own and has been helped by quality equipment from outside. Dr Ghalsasi admitted they have not yet been able to identify the reason behind the larg e deaths, which could put the vultures in the past.

Dr Asad R. Rahmani, Director, BNHS, admits clues are still not coming in. ``In the last 50 years we have not come across such a happening,'' Dr Ghalsasi says and adds that the Central Government has been quite helpful in allowing export of five dead tiss ues to an Australian research centre for ongoing study. On a technical point of tissue analysis, PDRC and the Australian team agree but that does not suffice. This is an important relaxation as the government is averse to export of tissues fearing loss o f genetic material to pharmaceutical companies and other organisations interested in patenting the genomes of organisms.

Also, the Central Government has allowed BNHS to set up a vulture captive breeding centre near Chandigarh to battle the speedy decimation of vultures. Mr Vibhu Prakash of BNHS has been sent to the UK for a six-month training course to operate the breedin g centre.

Dr Rahmani admits that the Haryana Government is keen on housing the project which will also study live vultures in captivity. ``It is quite possible we will able to follow the lives of vultures at the centre and keep a close tab on them,'' thinks Dr Rah mani.

At the Poultry Research Centre, the team under Dr Ghalsasi has been observing and analysing tissues from some 30 dead vultures (25 carcasses and five parts). ``But there is a need to raise the number of carcasses,'' admits an observer. Dr. Gaudar collect s the carcasses, which are then kept on ice to maintain the tissues in good health. Dr Supriya Kshirsagar and Dr Nighote specialise in culture techniques, molecular techniques for disease diagnosis and immunological techniques. Dr Nighote suspects a vira l attack on the brain but has yet to come across evidence to confirm the guess.

Dr Rahmani insists some more inter-ministerial co-operation could be of help and more ``none is aware of the seriousness of the situation.'' For instance in North India the usual practice is for the hide collector to strip a dead cow. Vultures then move in and finish off everything except the bones in about an hour depending on the strength of flock. In the third phase the bone collector gathers the bones for onward sale and the place is clean in about a day.

Today with vultures out of flight, Dr Rahmani has found dead cows lying in the villages with no takers. Crows and dogs have moved into the space but then this could lead to rabies or pass on some related disease to the poultry, contends Dr Rahmani. Villa gers have been making complaints with government over the rise in the number of untended dead bodies of cows. As of now the virus seems to be generic specific and has not spread from the vultures to other birds.

Even the hunt for eggs or baby birds is getting to be hard. The vultures lay a single egg in the mating season which is from October to March and if a male loses its female, the lover waits for a full season out of sorrow.

Salim Ali in The Book of Indian Birds writes about the White-backed or Bengal Vulture (Gyps bengalensis):

``It is seen throughout the Indian union, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Burma but not Ceylon. Can be confused with Long-billed Vulture (Gyps indicus). Our commonest vulture is a carrion-feeder and useful scavenger on the countryside and in the environs of tow ns and villages.

Largegatherings collect at animal carcasses with astonishing promptness and demolish them with incredible speed. The obsequious are attended by a great deal of harsh screeching and hissing as the birds strive to elbow themselves into advantageous positio ns or prance around with open wings, two birds tugging at a morsel from opposite ends.

Thougharepulsive creature at close quarters, a vulture gliding effortlessly in the sky is the very embodiment of graceful motion.'' This writer has witnessed a similar scene on a trip through Alwar in Rajasthan some two years ago.

Aswestepped out of the Research Centre we asked Dr Ghalsasi whether there was any hope for the vultures. ``I have not given up hope,'' he admits. At the BNHS, Dr Rahmani thinks any such disease will peak out at some time leaving a few unaffected as they develop immunity.

Some times Nature acts that way. If that happens, a few will get stronger and come back to full strength in a few years. But that is just a hope. As of now we are banking heavily on PDRC.''

Pic.: The poultry Diagnostic Researach Centre, of Venkateswara Hatcheries where they are trying to find out the reason behind the growing rate of deaths among the vultures of Bharatpur.

Picture by Paul Noronha.