Open Reservoir Near Ooty to Save Nilgiris Vultures, Says Expert

Vultures, a remarkable creature in Nature, is known to be a silent sentinel of the world. Vultures are not only Nature’s cleaners but also devoted parents as they sweat it out to raise their hatchlings with utmost care, often combating the odd situations in the jungles.

By efficiently consuming carcasses and organic waste, vultures prevent the spread of deadly diseases that could devastate wildlife, livestock and even people. By implementing effective conservation measures, we can give vultures a chance to recover, and restore the numerous benefits they provide.

Now, in these odd hours when the El Nino impact has already played havoc with the natural southwest monsoon cycle in the Nilgiris this year, the dried-up and drying shallow water pools in the jungles, especially in the Segur plateau in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) buffer zone, where vultures thrive in good numbers, began to ring alarm bells.

It is high time efforts were taken to fill up the water sources in the Segur plateau to help the existing and thriving vulture population there not only to quench their thirst but to tide over the water crisis that may severely affect their feeding and breeding biology and physiology and the health of the chicks in the nests, he advocated.

“It is known that the MTR jungles generally receive copious rainfall during the SW monsoon that stretches between June and September. As the first three months of this four-month-long monsoon failed to bring in the average normal rainfall for the season, the deficit rainfall and the lack of water in the jungles is expected to affect or alter the breeding behaviour and psychology of the vultures. In this backdrop, the only available option is to open water from the Sandynallah reservoir, near Ooty, as the water from there, which flows down to Segur plateau in MTR buffer zone down the hills, will do a world of good to sustain the breeding vulture population in the Moyar valley, as the chances of more rains to compensate for the deficit in the preceding three months looks to be a very remote possibility,” Ramakrishnan added.