Vulture: No vulture sighted in the wild in Odisha, forest minister informs assembly |
Bhubaneswar: There is no vulture in the wild in the state, forest minister Ganesh Ram Singhkhuntia informed the assembly in a written reply on Tuesday.
The minister was replying to a question from Cuttack-Choudwar MLA Souvic Biswal, who wanted to know how many vultures can be seen in districts and what steps have been taken for their conservation and breeding.
“No vulture can be sighted in the state. So, no census has been done. For their safety and security, awareness is being spread among common people and forest staff. We have vulture breeding centre at Nandankanan,” the minister replied.
The forest department has no information when vultures were last sighted in the state.
Among several possible reasons behind vultures not being sighted, a wildlife expert said since vultures feed on animal carcasses mostly, use of diclofenace (a pain killing molecule used to alleviate pain in both humans and animals) caused severe damage to their reproductive tissues. “Diclofenace in some way has been found to affect the reproductive health of vultures leading to their extinction,” the expert said.
Others see lack of food as one of the reasons given that there are better practices now to dispose of animal carcasses that were once left in the open.
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