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Young World
Farmer's friend
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Vultures are on the brink of extinction. What can we do to protect this bird of prey?
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A Griffon vulture...
Vultures are an important species among the birds of prey. They usually eat carrion and are important in nature's scheme of things, especially, in preventing the outbreak and spread of infectious diseases. They are friends of farmers also as their excreta (containing Guanine) is a good fertilizer.
Today the existence of vultures is at stake because of human persecution, loss of natural habitat, including roosting and nesting sites, excessive use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers in crops and trees and changes in urban waste dumping practices. The main threat is by poisoning, direct as well as indirect. There are eight species of vultures in India. The Whitebacked vultures are resident (breeds) and found in the open countryside all over India. The Longbilled vulture is found in North and partly in South India. The Griffon, Cinerous and Egyptian vultures are resident/migratory in India and are also known to be a predator of snakes and turtles. The King vulture stands apart from all other vultures, because of its red head, neck and legs, thighs and breast and thin white band running the whole length of the wing ventrally. It is found all over India and in the Himalayas. . The Himalayan griffon vulturehas a large ruff of pale brown streaked with white and adults are sandy white or khaki on the back. The decline in the population of vultures is as high as 90 to 96 per cent in the last four or five years as noted by the Bombay Natural History Society at Keoladeo National Park, Bharatpur, for Whitebacked and Longbilled vultures. This means the population could be wiped out in a decade or so.
BRIJ KISHOR GUPTA and W. C. ARORA
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