Only 260 vultures left in Bangladesh

With only around 260 White-rumped vultures left in Bangladesh, surveys reveal that the large birds are almost extinct in the country.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Bangladesh Forest Department conducted the surveys in 2014.

Nearly 60% of White-rumped vultures were extinct in four years, while the population was 1,972 in 2008 and 816 in 2012.

The population of the birds had declined due to threats associated mainly with man-made causes, said officials of the Forest Department.

“The number of vultures has drastically declined in Bangladesh, where there used to be hundreds of thousands of the birds just a few decades ago,” Secretary to the Environment and Forest Ministry Istiaque Ahmed said.

He was addressing the seventh Regional Steering Committee (RSC) Meeting for the South Asia Vulture Recovery Programme at the Hotel Pan Pacific Sonargaon in Dhaka on Thursday, chaired by the ministry’s Additional Secretary Amit Kumar Baul and co-chaired by IUCN Head of Natural Resource Group Scott Perkin.

Dr Rhys Green, a professor of conservation science in the United Kingdom, presented a paper titled “Diagnosing the reasons and solutions to Asian Vulture decline,” and Dr Juergen Daemmgen, a professor of pharmacology in Germany, presented another paper titled “Why are anti-inflammatory drugs toxic to vultures?”

Mohammed Shafiul Alam Chowdhury, chief conservator of forests at the Forest Department, also addressed the session attended by representatives from India and Nepal, RSC members, scientists, wildlife biologists and conservationists.

Speaking as the chief guest of the inaugural session, Istiaque said: “We know that the primary cause of the ecological disaster is the use of veterinary painkillers in cattle. When a cow dies and is consumed by vultures, the vultures die as well.

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http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/environment/2017/11/23/only-260-vultures-bangladesh/

Posted by admin on Nov 29 2017. Filed under Bangladesh Exclusive, Biodiversity, Wildlife. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry