Eleven poisoned vultures cured and released into the wild in Assam

india

Updated: Apr 27, 2020 15:17 IST

Veterinarians in Assam have cured 11 vultures who were poisoned after eating a contaminated carcass and released them in the wild on Monday.

Nineteen vultures belonging to two different species had died at Sibsagar district on April 21 after they consumed meat of a poisoned calf’s carcass at Lepaigaon Pathar in Assam.

“Seventeen of the dead vultures were Slender Billed while two others were White Backed. Preliminary investigation suggests it could be a case of secondary poisoning,” said Jayashree Naiding, divisional forest officer, Sibsagar.

“The primary target of the poisoning could be some other species, maybe stray dogs or wolves. But the vultures fed on the poisoned carcass and it resulted in the deaths,” she added.

Thirteen other vultures were rescued from the area and sent to the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC) near Kaziranga National Park for treatment and rehabilitation.

Two of the surviving vultures, one Slender Billed and another White Backed, died during treatment. But vets at CWRC were able to treat the others - 7 Himalayan Griffons, 3 Slender Billed and 1 White Backed.

“Secondary poisoning led to vulture deaths and remains a very critical issue. We are losing this threatened and critically endangered species, also known as nature’s cleaners,” said Samshul Ali, a veterinarian with Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) working at CWRC.

“We tried our level best to stabilize the two seriously ill birds, but they succumbed to death in the early hours of Friday,” he added.

The cured vultures were released by a WTI and CWRC team in presence of forest officials and conservationists.

Last year in March, a similar incident took place in Sibsagar district wherein 39 vultures died after consuming poisoned meat at Panidihing.

The CWRC team was able to rescue 30 vultures from that incident and release them to the wild. In April 2018, the team had rescued and released 10 poisoned vultures into the wild.

While Himalayan Griffons are listed as near threatened, White Backed and Slender Billed vultures are listed as critically endangered in the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List.