Years after they stopped soaring over city,2 vultures found

According to experts,a veterinary drug called ‘Diclofenac’,poisonous to vultures,has led to the bird’s near extinction across the country — the rate of decline is put between 97 and 99 per cent since the late 1990s. Delhi,which had many vultures till not long ago,has had none in the past decade.

Explaining how the birds were found,Sanjay Acharya from the Wildlife SOS,says,“Some locals called on our helpline and said a ‘big,eagle-like bird’ was sitting beside a drain near Ghazipur abattoir. We reached the spot and picked up the bird — it was injured.”

The NGO is also taking care of another vulture handed over by the Jain Bird Hospital.

Experts are unanimous that the vultures should not be released here. “We are keen on handing them over to a vulture breeding conservation centre at Pinjore (near Chandigarh) once requisite permissions come through,” Kartick Satyanarayan of the NGO said. “It will be unwise to release them in Delhi,for their chances of survival are slim here.”

Ecologist Faiyaz Khudsar said since vultures fly long distances to find food,it is possible that these birds came from other states. “But they should not be released in Delhi,” he said. “Chances are high that cattle are still being given banned drugs in Delhi — these birds will stand no chance (of surviving).”

The Drug Controller General of India had last year reaffirmed a ban on Diclofenac and said human equivalent of the drug,Voveran,should be marked with a “not for veterinary use” tag.