Chhattisgarh: “Vulture Restaurants” boost Conservation Of Scavenger Birds In Chhattisgarh Reserve

Raipur: “Vulture Restaurants”, food dump sites developed for the scavengers in the Indravati Tiger Reserve (ITR) in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district, have helped boost conservation of the endangered avian species.

The ITR authorities have identified major traditional carcass dump sites, found in the forests close to the human habitations in the region, and developed them as ‘Vulture Restaurants’ by ensuring that no toxic dead bodies of cattle are left in them, a senior forest officer said on Friday.

Farmers in the forested villages dump the carcasses of the cattle in the forest close to their habitations which pose threat to life of the vultures when they feed on them.

Veterinarians examine the carcasses in the dump sites and remove the toxic dead bodies of cattle from such dump sites to ensure supply of right food to the vultures.

“Two such traditional carcass dump sites in the forests have been developed as ‘Vulture Restaurant’ in the ITR”, deputy director of ITR Sandeep Balga told this newspaper.

The ‘vulture mitra (friend)’ teams and forest officials spread across the ITR to identify traditional dump sites close to the villages and collect the carcasses from them for examination before dumping them in the ‘Vulture Restaurants’, he said.

Forest dwellers use nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) to manage pain and inflammation in dairy cows that may otherwise negatively impact their health and milk yield.

The carcass of the cows administered with the NSAID usually become toxic and this is a major cause of mortality in vultures.

This apart, human interference is also one of the threats for vulture conservation.

Monitoring of the vulture movements is done through satellite telemetry to counter any such threat to them for their conservation, a forest officer said.

Two vultures were tagged with Global Positioning System (GPS) devices and released a few months ago.

The devices compiled the vulture movement data.

The data has revealed movement of vultures in the area of 10,000 sq km covering border regions of Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Telangana, according to the forest officer.’

There is a plan to tag three more vultures with GPS to monitor and record their habitations.

“The ‘Vulture Restaurants’ have no doubt helped boost the conservation of the scavengers”, Mr. Balga said.

According to him, the ITR has a vulture population of over 190 as per the latest census.