Nick Phillips, RSPB Senior Policy Officer, recently spent his RSPB sabbatical working at the Vulture Conservation Breeding Centre at Pinjore, Haryana State, India.
In this blog post he writes about his experiences and impressions of conservation in South-East Asia.
The Haryana Centre was developed with considerable support from the Darwin Initiative and State Government of Haryana.
We received a warm welcome at the vulture conservation breeding centre in Pinjore, North India: one of the first things to greet us was a rather large Russell’s viper. So we made a mental note – no walking through long grass in sandals!
Perched on the roof
Another lovely sight was that of a wild, white-backed vulture perched on one the roof of one of the aviaries – a fine start to our month-long sabbatical with the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS).
The centre is an impressive place. There are 240 captive vultures from three critically endangered species. The plan is to release these birds back into the wild, so human contact is kept to a minimum.
High quality CCTV cameras watch each of the main aviaries so staff can observe the vultures from a safe distance several times each day.
The birds are breeding successfully and demonstrating all kinds of natural behaviour. Vultures are remarkably clean and after each feed bathe and preen extensively. They also regularly open their massive wings and flap them to keep their pectoral muscles strong.
But you need a strong stomach to witness feeding time. The vultures here are fed twice a week and entirely on goats as cows are not killed in this part of India. The goats arrive skinned and are carefully weighed to make sure that the birds get the right amount of food.
Once a year in September, the vultures are rounded up for a health check. Young birds are fitted with microchips and leg rings, and are sexed by DNA analysis (it is impossible to tell males and females apart by sight). As many adults as possible are also caught and checked.
This is a huge undertaking as catching birds of that size and strength is quite a feat! This annual event requires all hands on deck to get it done as quickly as possible to minimise the disturbance to the birds, and we're delighted to be here during this exciting time to help.
This centre and others in India and Nepal will continue to look after and breed vultures, with the ultimate aim being to release them into the wild. But to do this we must create Vulture Safe Zones.
Advocacy and communication
It will take a huge amount of advocacy and communication to stop the illegal use of diclofenac for treating cattle. A safe alternative (meloxicam) is available but it is quite hard to persuade people to use it. Instead the focus of communications is on how vultures are critical for public health: their natural and rapid removal of carcasses reduces the numbers of flies and feral dogs, and removes the need to pay for carcass disposal.
So far, the focus of our work here has been to help develop a communications plan and materials for a variety of audiences. We need to influence chemists, drug controllers and vets, as well as local cattle owners and families.
The project has come a long way in the last 15 years: identifying the cause of the vultures’ dramatic decline, successfully lobbying for a ban on the veterinary use of diclofenac and successfully breeding all three species in captivity. It has been ground-breaking work.
The focus now is to take the next steps to ensure a sustainable population of these magnificent birds.