Saving the VIPs - vultures in Pakistan

The struggle to conserve a species of birds vital to our ecosystem

Between 2000 and 2001, the towns of Taunsa and Toawala and the Changa Manga forest in Punjab were home to large colonies of vultures. An estimated 758 pairs of white-backed vultures flocked to Changa Manga, one of the world’s largest manmade forests. A study conducted by the Peregrine Fund and Ornithological Society of Pakistan found that an estimated 421 pairs lived in Taunsa and 445 in Toawala. Twelve years later, not a single vulture can be found in these areas. However, the World Wildlife Fund in Pakistan (WWF-Pakistan) is working towards repopulating the skies of places such as Changa Manga by combating the biggest threat to this species: a drug called Diclofenac Sodium. 



VIPs: Vultures in Pakistan

Vultures, known locally as ‘gidh’, are said to be ‘nature’s recyclers’. Their resistance to bacterial and viral diseases means they are able to feast on dead animals, thereby renewing and cleansing the ecosystem. The white-backed vulture species, commonly found in Pakistan, India and Nepal, has declined by more than 99% since the 1990s. Thus, vultures have been mandated ‘critically endangered’ by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, an international organisation working towards conservation of such species.

Captive breeding centre for white-backed vultures. PHOTO CREDIT: FAISAL FARID

The world is home to more than 20 species of vultures, with Australia and Antarctica the only continents where these birds do not exist. Pakistan is home to eight species of vultures: the Lammergeyer or bearded vulture, the Egyptian or scavenger vulture, the oriental white-backed vulture, the long-billed vulture, the Eurasian griffon, the Himalayan griffon, the Eurasian black vulture or Cinereous vulture and the king vulture.

For a bird that is traditionally believed to be aggressive or dangerous, many ask, ‘Why save the vultures?’ Experts from the Indian Save Asia’s Vultures from Extinction programme estimate that in the 1990s, there were as many as 40 million vultures in India, consuming roughly 12 million tonnes of carrion annually. With a sharp drop in the number of vultures, this disposal system for dead animals has all but disappeared, thus raising health and environmental concerns.

In many cases, dead animals are being sold to the poultry industry so they can be used as chicken feed. Oil is extracted from the intestines of the dead animals and calcium from their bones. With such practices, the risk of human diseases from consumption of such poultry significantly increases, says ZB Mirza, author of A field guide to Birds of Pakistan and visiting professor of biodiversity at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad and Kinnaird College for Women in Lahore.

The hunter becomes hunted

In September 2006, WWF-Pakistan successfully lobbied the government to ban the drug Diclofenac Sodium. The drug is used as a painkiller or to reduce swelling in injured or diseased animals and in 2004, experts found that vultures feeding on cattle treated with Diclofenac died from acute kidney failure within days or were unable to reproduce. The demise of the white-backed vulture (Gyps bengalensis), long-billed vulture (Gyps indicus) and the slender-billed vulture (Gyps tenuirostris) was directly linked with the use of the drug by veterinarians and farmers.

An anti-inflammatory veterinary drug, Diclofenac Sodium. PHOTO CREDIT: WIKIPEDIA

Even as the production and use of the painkiller injection was banned in 2006, the drug is reportedly smuggled into Pakistan from China and vets continue to use it. As Diclofenac is also found in pain-relieving drugs for humans, many vets or farmers simply administer this version to sick animals.



Experts have suggested the use of an alternate drug Meloxicam, which is being promoted among farming communities and vets, as it is not harmful for vultures. Sensitisation seminars and workshops are also routinely held to educate communities about the damaging effects of Diclofenac.

Safe zones

In 2005, WWF-Pakistan released 21 white-backed vultures in a large aviary in the Changa Manga forest and fed the birds a steady diet of donkeys and goats reared on the project’s site. The programme, the Gyps Vulture Restoration Project, intends to replenish the vulture population and once the environment is deemed to be free of Diclofenac, these vultures will be freed. The birds have identification chips embedded in their skin to enable identification.

As of 2014, WWF-Pakistan says 14 white-backed vultures live in the Changa Manga restoration centre, which enables captive breeding and the maintenance of vulture population in the area. Sustaining conservation is tough work, WWF-Pakistan says, keeping in mind funding and the fact that this species of bird lays only one egg in a year.



Between 2011 and 2013, WWF-Pakistan found 15 active nests of vultures in Nagarparkar, in Tharparkar, Sindh. In order to conserve the white-backed vultures here, the group set up a protected zone, the Vulture Safe Zone, over 100kms. Free livestock vaccinations and de-worming is offered here in order to prevent the use of Diclofenac while information on better animal husbandry practices is provided to the local farming community.

Syed Muhammad Abubakar is a freelance journalist and tweets @SyedMAbubakar

Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, March 22^nd,  2015.