Thar’s vultures and their saviours

Karachi

Moti Lal’s first instinct was to look for help as soon as he heard wails of a baby vulture lying critically injured under a tree in the desert district of Thar. The offspring, Moti Lal found out, belonged to a critically endangered species of the bird of prey called the white-backed vulture. With the help of a neighbour’s kid, he successfully managed to place the chick back to the bird’s nest, at the top of the tree.

However, to his surprise the efforts went in vain as the offspring was thrown back on the ground within minutes; several more attempts met the same fate.

Referred to as the ‘vulture-lover’ by the people of Nagarparkar, Moti Lal, while further narrating the series of events, said that his investigations revealed that the mother of the offspring had died and the new companion selected by the male vulture was not willing to keep the offspring in the nest.

But Moti Lal proudly stated that the female vulture was unknowing of the fact that he was one of the many people willing to look after the abandoned chick.

The offspring was taken to Moti Lal’s residence in ‘Malji Jo Wandio’ a shanty village in Nagarparkar, and Shahid Iqbal of the WWF-Pakistan was immediately informed.

A vulture conservationist, Iqbal who frequents the remote town of Nagarparkar, got his organisation to shift the injured chick to the Vulture Conservation Centre, located at some 80 kilometres from Lahore near the Changa Manga forest.

The centre houses a number of the endangered white-backed and long-billed vultures under a captive breeding programme.

“By the end of 20th century, some veterinarians in Pakistan started using Diclofenac Sodium - a pain-killer meant to treat injured animals and livestock. Where the drug proved effective in treating the injuries, but proved fatal for vultures, especially the two species - after they fed on the carcasses of animals which had been treated by the pain killer. Within a few years, thousands of vultures had died and were almost wiped off from Pakistan,” Iqbal informed.

According to the conservationist, it was in 2004 that a professor at the Bahauddin Zakaria University, Multan, Dr Aleem Ahmed Khan identified the cause of the species decline.

Why save them  

“Vultures are unique creatures and are of immense significance as they help prevent spread of diseases caused by rotting animal or human corpses, unburied or not disposed of properly, by feeding off them,” Iqbal said, adding, that it was sad that the specie was abhorred in our society and literature because it does the work of a scavenger.

“Imagine this world without scavengers! There would be piles of garbage and thousands would die of communicable diseases,” he remarked in dismay.

Further elaborating on the characteristics of the bird, Iqbal said they had an excellent sense of sight and smell which helps them locate their food from a mile or more away. They often have large territories and spend a lot of time soaring to locate their next meal, he added.

The WWF-official rejected the notion that the bird circles over a dying animal waiting to feed on it. “These birds are powerful fliers and soar on thermals while they look for food, but when they locate a carcass, they approach it quickly to begin eating before other predators find it,” he explained.

Community action       

What Moti Lal did was the outcome of a conservation activity launched by the WWF-Pakistan in Nagarparkar after it found out that a small community of white-backed and long-billed vultures still existed in the area but was nearing extinction due to the usage of Diclofenac Sodium by local vets in the area, as people in the area were totally dependent on livestock.

“I have communicated to my people whatever I have been taught by experts about vultures and their role in the ecosystem. Now people listen to me, and not use the harmful medicine,” Moti Lal said.

His claims, turned out to be true as he was not the only vulture-rescuer in Nagarparkar, in fact Ramesh Kumar, Poonam Chand, Deva, Salman Baloch, Abdul Shakoor and several others, irrespective of their faith and differences in lifestyle, were among many others striving to save the dying species.

Owing to WWF’s programme, Nagarpakar currently has 35 nests of white-backed vultures in the trees and over 150 nests of the long-billed specie up in the hills.