The aim is to raise awareness about the crucial role vultures play in ecosystem

Visitors to the Government Botanical Garden in Udhagamandalam will now have the chance to learn about the four different species of vultures, which inhabit the Nilgiris.

On Friday, members of Arulagam, an NGO working towards vulture conservation, unveiled an interactive audio display panel, featuring pictures of the four different vulture species seen here – the white rumped vulture, long-billed vulture, red headed or Asian king vulture and the Egyptian vulture.

S. Bharathidasan, secretary of Arulagam, said that the interactive audio display panel will explain to tourists both in English and in Tamil, the decline of vulture populations in India and the reasons with the press of a button. “The main aim of the display board is to first and foremost, raise awareness among people about the crucial role vultures play in any ecosystem, while at the same time raising awareness about the need to stop using anti-inflammatory drugs such as diclofenac, which have been linked to the steep decline in populations,” said Mr. Bharathidasan.

The interactive display put up near the entrance to the garden has been designed in such a way that the message is conveyed in simple parlance to visitors, added Mr. Bharathidasan.

The display panel was inaugurated by the Nilgiris District Collector, Innocent Divya.

Also present at the event were the District Forest Officer (Nilgiris division), Sumesh Soman, Joint Director of Animal Husbandry N.S. Manoharan, Joint Director of Horticulture (in-charge of Nilgiris district), Sivasubramaniam Samraj and Karthika Rajkumar, president of Arulagam.

The conservation group plans to set up more interactive audio display panels in other tourist hotspots, besides putting up exhibits during next year’s summer festival at both the Rose Show and the Flower Show, highlighting the need to protect and conserve vulture population in the Nilgiris.