Slender Billed vulture almost extinct in MP
Date :12-Feb-2020
By Ankita Garg :
There is no doubt that cleanliness and hygienic environment is becoming our routine but on other side it has affected the population of biological scavengers. Though, Madhya Pradesh has recorded marginal rise in population of vultures by 12 per cent but there are a few species on verge of extinction in lack of food. Talking to ‘The Hitavada’ Ornithologist Sangeeta Rajgir said, “A few species like Slender Billed vulture are in endangered category as they are dependent on specific food.
Though, Government has banned diclofenac and launched several substitute medicines but it is still being used in market due to affordable price. Apart from the diclofenac, sanitation drives have also affected the lives of these vultures and people are not throwing small insects or animals in open area.” Rajgir further said, ‘with the cleanliness drives, people have started keeping their surrounding neat and clean but indirectly it is affecting the lives of vultures.
She said that currently, Egyptian vultures are the only species being spotted in almost all parts of the state. Two species name as Long Billed and Red Headed vulture are mostly found around the national parks and tiger reserves. These species have been extinct from nearby areas of cities in lack of food. They are hardly available around the national parks and tiger reserves only.
As per census-2019, vulture count was found as 7,906 in Madhya Pradesh with increase of 864 vultures as comparison to year 2016. Sangeeta Rajgir said that national parks and tiger reserves are using incinerator to dispose the left-out meat and carcass of animals. However, they are not wrong to use the decomposer techniques as it keeps the environment clean and also save from any kind of infection or outbreak but on other side it is killing the food of biological scavengers