Mohamed bin Zayed Species project number 136916

Provisional Vulture Safe Zone, Central Gujarat Ahmedabad

Team Leader: Aditya Roy 

Team:Niyati Kukadia, Pavan Patel,Anil Patel, Vishal Mistry,  Yatri Baxi, Devanshi Kukadia, Govind, Veterinary doctors and Livestock inspectors 

Introduction

Based on satellite tracking data, Gyps vultures (Gyps indicus and Gyps bengalensis) are known to forage in an area of 100km radii from their nesting site. Thus in order to conserve them in-situ an area of 100km radii i.e. 30,000 sq.km around the vulture nesting site needs to be made safe from Diclofenac and other factors affecting vulture population. This is the line of thought behind making vulture safe zones. On this bases provisional vulture safe zone projects have been initiated in Gujarat, Uttarpradesh, Jharkhand Uttarakhand and Assam by BNHS & RSPB in collaboration with state level organizations/people working for vulture conservation. Gujarat having good population of Gyps bengalensis (577) and Gyps indicus (361) (Gyps vulture population estimation 2012, GEER foundation) becomes one of the important states to target vulture conservation efforts. Thus two Provisional vulture safe zones (PVSZ) have been proposed in Gujarat i.e Saurashtra and Central Gujarat which are vulture population stronghold regions.

The work of PVSZ central Gujarat is underway since last one and a half year. The area is spread over 8 districts namely Ahmedabad, Mahesana, Surendranagar, Anand, Sabarkantha, Kheda, Patan and Gandhinagar. Out of these eight Ahmedabad, Mahesana, Surendranagar and Anand districts have active colonies of Gyps bengalensis totalling over 150 individuals. (Please see Fig:1 )

In order to achieve a vulture safe zone on ground, a holistic multi-stakeholder approach was adopted. This included top level officers of food & Drug, Forest and Animal husbandry departments to villagers. Awareness, Advocacy and Monitoring were the three major components of this whole exercise.  

 

Monitoring:

Monitoring is a crucial part of any scientific work. It is very essential for generating scientific data which is important to assess the impact of conservation work being carried out and level of awareness among people. During the PVSZ work vulture nesting/roosting colonies, feeding sites and pharmacies were regularly monitored.

Vulture colonies

Monitoring nesting/roosting colonies

The colony of Ahmedabad was being monitored by Mr.Kartik Shastri since 1999. Similarly the colony at kadi (Mahesana) was being monitored by one of our colleagues Mr. Anil Patel since 2007. In recent years monitoring colonies at Khambhat and Viramgam talukas has also been started.

During the PVSZ work more regular monitoring of these colonies and included GPS mapping of active nests, tree species, nest height and tree height etc. was carried out.  Photographic documentation of each nesting colony was also done. (Please refer to Fig:3 )

Table 1: Number of Gyps bengalensis nests monitored during 2012-13

District

Taluka

No. of nests

Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad

15

 

Viramgam

18

Surendranagar

Dhrangadhra

14

Anand

Khambhat

5

Mahesana

Kadi

23

 

Bechraji

1

Total

76

 

Finding of new colonies

Extensive survey and inquiry with locals, forest staff and nature lovers were carried out to find new vulture colonies. During this our field worker Vishal Mistry found a new colony in Dhrangadhra taluka of Surendranagar district. On this information we carried out more intensive search around this colony and found nesting in four more villages nearby. Thus during the course of PVSZ work we found a new colony of almost 60 Gyps bengalensis and started monitoring it.

During the monitoring from our past experience we feel that there is a strong need to protect the trees on which vultures nest. Especially in case of commercially important trees there are high chances of deliberate nest destruction by tree owners. For e.g all the nests of Khambhat colony were made on toddy palm trees, which are grown for commercial interest. During the nesting season 2012-13 we found that all the nests of this colony were destroyed. Similar incidences occur in coastal region of Gujarat where vultures nest on coconut and palm trees. A good economical compensation and legal protection both need to be implemented strongly to avoid these losses.

During the nest monitoring one very important feature that was common in all the colonies was selection of nesting sites near human habitation and village ponds. Except the nests of urban areas i.e. Ahmedabad and Kadi, all the nests recorded in PVSZ central Gujarat area were near village ponds primarily on large old trees. We also found vultures’ dependence on these shallow village ponds for their routing bathing/ sunning activity and drinking water. It is important to note that these ponds are fast vanishing with development. At many places they are being dug to deep ponds with JCB machines. It is very crucial to protect the existing colonies and possible nesting locations under wildlife protection act. (Please see Fig: 2)

Feeding sites

As it is well known carcasses having residues of diclofenac sodium are the main reason behind the dramatic decline of Asian vultures. Lately two other drugs Ketoprofen and Aceclofenac have also proven toxic for vultures.

In Gujarat a social and religious system termed “panjrapols” is very powerful. Panjrapols are places where unproductive and sick cattle are kept till they die and are given all necessary care. As these cattle are very weak the death ratio in these panjrapols is quite high and the dead animals are dumped in the huge premises that these panjrapols own. Such dumps have been regular feeding sites for vultures since many hundred years. In the PVSZ central Gujarat and surrounding area we have over 10 such panjrapols, from which 3 are known regular vulture feeding sites. We have been monitoring 2 of these sites from last five years and make sure that no vulture toxic drugs are being used there. Also a regular watch is kept on numbers of vultures coming to these sites.

We have observed that during winter these sites are visited regularly by vultures but as soon as the breeding season ends (late April to early May) vultures start dispersing and feed at random sites. Hence they fall victim to unsafe food and this is the period (Summer-Monsoon) when we have seen maximum cases of visceral gout. During our field surveys we have observed vultures feeding on carcasses at village outskirts which are not regular dumping sites. (See Plate 1)

During the PVSZ work we have visited all the important panjrapols and did awareness with vets and managers of panjrapols. We also did a GPS mapping of all important carcass dumps which can serve as food sources and interacted with the skinners present at these dumps. Majority of the skinners told that according to them vultures died because lot of medications are being used for animals which was not the case in past. Though they were not aware of any particular drug but their logic was quite clear and it was apparent that they had observed vultures in great detail. Many of them could even describe 5 different species of vultures and their order while feeding. 

One very urgent need of time is rapid testing method which can detect presence of diclofenac and other toxic drugs in carcasses on field. That can play a very important role in assessing the safety of that particular feeding site and help in better monitoring and management.

Blue bull’s population has increased dramatically in past 10 years in Gujarat. Many bluebulls fall victims of road accidents.  These dead bodies are free from drugs and serves as great food for vultures and other scavengers. (See Plate 1) But as per wildlife act 1972, dead bluebull has to be buried in presence of forest officials. This becomes a major legal hurdle for using road accident bluebulls for vulture food. Moreover as bluebulls and feral pigs cause heavy crop damage, lot of organophospates are used to kill them. Such dead bodies when consumed by vultures or other scavengers, they also die. We have come across several cases of organophospate poisoning in vultures in last 10 years. In order to solve both these issues there is need to make amendments in wildlife act, such that it allows regulated hunting of bluebulls and feral pigs and those must be allowed to use for natural scavengers.

One thing clear from the surveys of nesting and feeding site is that there are many suitable nesting sites where vultures were present in past. There are many large carcass dumps where vultures were regular visitors in past. Hence loss of nesting habitat and food scarcity as reported in many articles cannot be the reasons for vulture decline. When the habitat and food both are there and vultures are not there is clear indicator that they died of something else i.e Diclofenac and other toxic NSAIDS and poisons used to kill agricultural pests like buebulls and feral pigs.

 

Pharmacy

Diclofenac sodium has been ban in veterinary sector since 2006. But the efficacy and cost effectiveness of this drug still attracts a huge amount of illegal use of human diclofenac in veterinary sector. The 30ml multidose vials of human diclofenac are easily available in pharmacy stores and cost 1/3rd compare to meloxicam. In order to know the prevalence of multidose human diclofenac in veterinary market an undercover survey was carried out across the PVSZ Central Gujarat area. Our field worker vishal mistry visited 120 pharmacy stores spread over the PVSZ area.

From 120 pharmacies 69 shops gave drugs rest refused to give drugs or did not have painkillers for animals. The results of 69 stores are shown in table 2.

Table 2: Pharmacy Survey Stage 1

Active Drug

# of Pharmacies that offered this drug

Diclofenac Sodium

22/69

Meloxicam

29/69

Analgin

7/69

Nimesulide

6/69

Phenyl Butazone

1/69

Piroxicam

1/69

Non- NSAIDS

3/69

 

It shows that meloxicam is getting in the market but human diclofenac is still the biggest competitor. The most effective way to remove the diclofenac from veterinary market would be to make it equally priced or less priced compare to diclofenac and put a legal ban on multidose human diclofenac vials.

3 months after the first undercover survey second survey was carried out as awareness survey and discussed the diclofenac and vulture issue with the entire 69 store owner and many more stores which were present in our area. Posters were put up on all the stores and brouchers were given to store owners.

 The last stage undercover survey is currently on-going to know the effect after awareness.

Awareness and Advocacy:

Literature

Awareness amongst the local stakeholders and villagers who are directly linked to vultures is very important aspect for creating a vulture safe zone. When we started looking at various materials available in this matter, we realized that there is a strong need to develop awareness material which is crisp and understandable by locals. It must be in vernacular language covering all aspects of conservation and designed as per the target group. We designed three different types of materials:  A broucher that can be given to villagers, local interested people, ground level forest staff, skinners, panjrapols managers and nature lovers; APoster which can be kept in forest offices, panjrapols, schools and chemist shops and one more poster especially for chemist shops. All the materials have mobile numbers where people can contact if they find vulture colony or dead/injured vultures. (See Plate 3)

 

Village level

During the PVSZ work we visited all the villages where active vulture colonies are present and also villages where vultures were recorded in recent past. Initially we used to go and meet people at commonplace, talk to them about vultures and their importance and take their views. We revisited the villages several times and also distributed reading material and put up posters. We also did film shows on vultures in important vulture colony villages. In every village we met locally influential people like sarpanch and school teachers. During the meetings with villagers we identified local individuals who are more interested in this issue and took their numbers. We keep in touch with these local leaders at least once in a week and they also call and give news regarding vultures. We have been doing this activity since last five years and during the PVSZ work we also covered the newly found colony of Dhrangadhra taluka. As the impact of awareness work in these new villages, just in a period of three months after finding this colony we have rescued and released two juvenile Gyps bengalensis with leg ring and collected one dead juvenile which turned out to be a case of visceral gout. The best local leaders are children of age 15-17 years. They are full of enthusiasm and keen observers. To our surprise we get phone calls from this young army about sighting of ringed vulture in their village and their observation is so strong that whenever we go to that village they take us to particular spot where ringed vulture regularly roosts. This is the level of attachment and awareness which needs to be achieved for any species if we really want to conserve it. Those who stay with the species 24 X 7 are the ones who can save them not us, and if these people are properly oriented than the species will surely have a bright future.  (See Plate 4)

 

Vets/paravets

Vets and paravets are the most crucial and toughest sector for targeting awareness. Paravets and untrained vets are not allowed to practice legally and hence reaching and talking to them is very tough. During the PVSZ work we tried to personally visit and interact with as many vets and paravets possible. We also interacted with vets/paravets that are practicing at panjrapols because their role will be more crucial as vultures feed in big numbers at these panjrapols. Two major drawbacks for convincing them for meloxicam in place of diclofenac are cost and efficacy. Initially we were not satisfied with the awareness that we achieved in this sector but later when we started distributing meloxicam as subsidized rate there was a big change. This is described in more details towards the end of this report under the heading “Distribution of subsidized meloxicam and its impacts”. 

Panjrapols

As discussed panjrapols paly crucial role as traditional vulture feeding sites. Hence it is very important to interact with the managers and vets of panjrapols. We have been working with two important panjrapols of kadi and Viramgam taluka since last 5 years. During the PVSZ work we extended this to all major panjrapols which used to get hundreds of vultures in past. They still have great potential to become feeding sites when the vulture population is re-established and hence they must be converted to safe food sources in advance. These panjrapols have huge campuses and almost 2000-5000 cattle. There are average 2-10animals dying daily at each panjrapols. Hence they hold great potential for vulture conservation.

Important panjrapols in and around PVSZ central Gujarat which were targeted during awareness work are listed in table 3.

Table 3: Important Panjrapols in and around PVSZ Central Gujarat

District

Taluka

Name of Panjrapol

Ahmedabad

Viramgam

Viramgam khodadhor panjrapol

 

Detroj

Rampura Mahajan

Mahesana

Kadi

Dabhla panjrapol

 

 

Linch mahajan

Surendranagar

Dhrangadhra

Dhrangadhra khodadhor panjrapols

 

Wadhvan

Wadhvan Mahajan

 

Muli

Khakhrathal veed-Wadhvan Mahajan

Patan

Sami

Sami panjrapols

 

Harij

Harij Panjrapol

 

Radhanpur

Godhana veed-Radhanpur mahajan

 

Forest department

As Gyps bengalensis falls under schedule 1 of wildlife protection act it is very important to get positive support of forest department. During the PVSZ work and past years we have built up a good relation with forest department of Ahmedabad, Mahesana and Surendranagar districts. They have been very positive in case of vulture rescues, dead vulture post mortems and other issues. We also had good opportunities to interact and give presentations to ground level forest staff of Mahesana and Surendranagar districts. We also had positive interactions with chief wildlife warden and director of GEER foundation regarding vulture safe zone work.

During October and November 2013 we had several meetings with Chief wildlife warden of Gujarat Dr. C.N. Pandey, Chief Conservator of Forest Ahmedabad Circle Dr.Jagdish Prasad and Deputy Conservator of Forests Ahmedabad Dr.T. Karuppasami. All have given very positive support. The forest department has agreed to create vulture conservation committee at district levels, jointly with local level leaders working for vulture conservation. Both of us (Aditya Roy &KartikShastri) have been made members of this committee of Ahmedabad district.

Animal husbandry

Department of Animal husbandry is important govt. machinery that looks after livestock development and veterinary facility of state. During the PVSZ work we had an opportunity to meet the director Mr. A.J. Kachiyapatel. He is very positive towards the issue of diclofenac and vultures and has also issued special directive to all his staff for not using diclofenac. He also offered his full support to utilize meetings and gatherings by department as an awareness platform. With his support we were able to address all the deputy directors of animal husbandry from every district of Gujarat on a single platform at Gandhinagar on 22nd March 2013. On 27th April 2013 we attended the world veterinary day conference at Junagadh, Gujarat and interacted with veterinarians of whole state on a single platform. The secretary of Gujarat veterinary council Dr. Tank has also been very supportive in all our efforts. We hope to do some more concrete work with the department in future.  (See Plate 5)

 

Food and drug authority

At state level food and drug authority is the controlling govt. body for regulating drugs. During the PVSZ work we met the commissioner food and drug Mr.Koshiya and asst. commissioner drugs Mr.Chauhan twice. They were very supportive and quick in action. Within a period of 10 days they issued a circular to all district level drug inspectors for stringent regulation over veterinary use of human diclofenac. Mr.Chauhan also gave technical guidance which can be useful in banning the multidose diclofenac formulations.  (See plate 6)

Dairy cooperatives

We had a very fruitful interaction with the managing director and C.E.O of AMUL dairy, the largest cooperative dairy of India. Over 2,00,000 people give milk to AMUL federation and the veterinary care of their animals is done by AMUL. It has a staff of over 150 veterinarians for providing veterinary facilities. After our meeting with AMUL, they have voluntarily stopped use of Ketoprofen in their practice and they have also published the whole issue of vulture crisis in AMUL patrika, which is a magazine in Guajarati distributed to over 1,50,000 AMUL beneficiaries.  (See plate 6)

 

Rescue/dead vultures

Our involvement in vulture conservation began with the rescue activity since last 10 years. Kite festival celebrated during 14-15th January is responsible for thousands of bird injuries and casualties. We have been actively involved in bird rescue activity and since last 5 years actively associated with Ahmedabad based rescue and treatment organization “Jivdaya Charitable Trust”(JCT). Mr. Kartik Shastri is one of the trustees and Aditya Roy is scientific adviser in this organization. With the infrastructure of JCT we have treated/ post-mortem 49 Gyps bengalensis from PVSZ area during 2012-13. Out of this 16 were cases of visceral gout. We have also sent tissue samples of these vultures to VCBC Pinjore and SACON for further analysis whenever we got permission from forest department.

Table 4: vulture rescue/dead from PVSZ CGJ between Jan 2012-Nov 2013

Area

Alive

Dead

Total

Ahmedabad

7

11

18

Viramgam

 

8

8

Kadi

3

15

18

Khambhat

 

1

1

Surendranagar

2

1

3

Grand Total

13

36

49

 

Table 5: Cases of Visceral Gout between Jan 2012- Nov 2013

S.no

Date of rescue

Area of Rescue

Sex

Age

1

19/2/2012

Ahmadabad

M

Adult

2

14/7/2012

Kadi

F

Adult

3

14/7/2012

Kadi

M

Juvenile

4

5/8/2012

Ahmadabad

M

Sub Adult

5

8/8/2012

Ahmadabad

F

Sub Adult

6

19/10/2012

Viramgam

Un id

Adult

7

26/1/2013

Kadi

M

Sub Adult

8

7/3/2013

Kadi

M

Sub Adult

S.no

Date of rescue

Area of Rescue

Sex

Age

9

9/3/2013

Ahmedabad

M

Adult

10

3/5/2013

Ahmedabad

F

Adult

11

10/5/2013

Surendranagar

M

Juvenile

12

24/5/2013

Kadi

M

Sub Adult

13

16/08/2013

Ahmedabad

M

Sub Adult

14

20/09/2013

Daslana

M

Sub Adult

15

21/09/2013

Kadi

F

Juvenile

16

08/11/2013

Daslana

M

Adult

 

Ringing

As part of the bird rescue activity we have successfully released 15 Gyps bengalensis with leg rings provided by RSPB/BNHS. These rings have proven of great help in terms of knowing the movement of vultures. For a special mention; a ringed vulture SR which was released in 2010, was re-sighted several times. Finally we also found her making nest and monitored her chick. We also found her feeding at a carcass dump almost 55km from the nesting site. We have ringed vultures from 3 major colonies i.e Ahmedabad, Kadi and Dhrangadra each having a population of over 40 individuals. We hope to get maximum re-sighting data which can help in understanding movement of individuals between colonies.

 

Table 6: List of Ringed vultures released since 2009

S.no

Ring Code & Color

Year

Colony

Re sighting

1

SX

2009

Ahmadabad

 

2

PX

2009

Ahmadabad

 

3

PA

2009

Ahmadabad

 

4

UP

2010

Ahmadabad

 

5

SS

2010

Ahmadabad

 

6

SR

2010

Ahmadabad

√

7

UU

2010

Ahmadabad

 

8

EO6

2012

Ahmadabad

 

9

EO1

2012

Ahmadabad

 

10

D56

2012

Ahmadabad

√

11

DO2

2012

Ahmadabad

√

12

D61

2013

Kadi

 

13

D41

2013

Dhrangadhra

√

14

D47

2013

Ahmadabad

√

15

D04

2013

Dhrangadhra

√

 

 

Distribution of subsidized meloxicam and its impacts

The major problem that we realize from the work done in last five years is that meloxicam is costlier than diclofenac and doctors feel that it is less effective. Awareness and advocacy have limits and in spite of legal ban there is a huge spill over of human diclofenac into veterinary market. The only way to prevent this is to make meloxicam so easily and cheaply available that vets/paravets stop using diclofenac on their own. It has to be in a business manner and not a charitable free distribution of meloxicam. Anything given free for commercial use is against ethics and it can’t sustain long.  Moreover people see free things as lower quality stuff. Vets/paravets have very good private practice which is fully commercial and hence giving free to them is not a good option. So we decided to give meloxicam at cheapest possible price without any profit and no added subsidy to reduce price below cost price. We are really grateful to INTAS pharmaceutical private ltd. for their prompt support for this cause. As JCT is running a veterinary hospital we did direct tie up between INTAS and JCT and started supplying 100ml Melonex (Meloxicam 5mg/ml) injections to vets/paravets in most crucial vulture areas of Ahmedabad, Mahesana and Surendranagar districts. This has started recently from May 2013 and by November 2013 we distributed 1500 vials. When we went to vets and paravets as commercial suppliers of meloxicam to our surprise we not only able to trace the smallest practitioner but they started contacting us for the meloxicam vials. As we are running this on no profit no loss bases we can continue this work without much financial support for long term. Our aim is to flood the area with meloxicam in such way that automatically the market for diclofenac and other painkillers go down and this will impact the whole supply chain. In long term the use of diclofenac would automatically stop. Diclofenac vs Meloxicam is a market and business issue and we think that fighting it in a businessmen manner would be a better option than doing charity and awareness. If our initiative becomes successful for at least two years we hope to see its clear impact on cases of gout and population of vultures in PVSZ central Gujarat.

Our efforts to save vultures have just begun and we have a long way to go. But there is a determination that we would see vultures fly majestically back in the sky of Gujarat like past. We have great support from the enthusiastic young team that is always ready to take up any tasks with a spirit of positivity.

Table 7: numbers of targets approached in each target group during PVSZ work 2012-13

 

Sr. No

Target Group

Size of target covered during PVSZ work 

1.

Villages

40 (approx. 500 individuals)

2.

Vets

200

3.

Paravets/Quacks

40

4.

Skinners

35

5.

Panjrapols

15

6.

Filed level forest staff

50

7.

D.C.F

5

8.

C.C.F

2

9.

Chief Wildlife Warden

1

10.

Food and Drug Commissioner

1

11.

Dairy Co operatives

1

12.

Pharmaceutical companies

1

13.

Pharmacy stores

120

14.

Local NGOs

25

15.

Schools

30

16.

Nature lovers and bird rescue volunteers

500

17.

Vulture nests (Gyps bengalensis)

76

Project Updates Nov 2013-Jan 2014

Activity

Status

Awareness programs in Vulture colonies

7 villages in 30,000Sq.km area covered, distributed literature on vernacular language

Awareness programs with Skinner community at carcass dumps

12 carcass dumps across the state covering over 100 skinners, distributed literature on vernacular language

Collection of livestock carcass samples for NSAIDs analysis

Approx. 450 Liver samples collected from Central and Western Gujarat covering major vulture feeding sites

Rescue/Treatment of Vultures

14 White Rumped Vultures rescued/collected between 1st Nov- 31st Jan 2014

Distribution of Vulture safe drug Meloxicam

Distributed 1000vials of 100ml meloxicam in Central Gujarat

 

 

Gyps bengalensis rescued between 1st Nov 2013-  31st Jan 2014

Area of Rescue (District)

Total rescues

Ahmedabad

7

Surendranagar

4

Mahesana

2

Bhavnagar

1

 Total

14