After vulture population shrinks by 90%, Delhi High Court urges ban on drugs harmful to raptors

The Delhi High Court on Friday asked the Central government to take all necessary measures to save the declining vulture population in the country since they form an important link in the food chain and are essential for maintaining the environment..A Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Navin Chawla also asked the government to examine the request made by the National Vulture Recovery Committee to ban “Aceclofenac” and “Ketoprofen” for veterinary use since the two drugs are particularly toxic to vultures.The Court was dealing with a public interest litigation (PIL) petition filed by advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal highlighting that since the 1990s, population of several species of vultures in India has gone down by over 90 percent..The bench issued notice to the Central government as well as the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation, National Biodiversity Authority and Indian Veterinary Research Institute directing them to file their responses within four weeks.The case will now be considered on August 24..The plea stated the Bombay Natural History Society (Member of National Vulture Recovery Committee, Government of India) had conducted a nationwide raptor survey in many parts of India between 1991 to 1993 and repeated the same in the year 2000. The survey showed that the population of Oriental White Backed Vulture and Long Billed Vultures had declined by more than 92 percent in this period.The plea argued that another survey showed that by the year 2007, the population of Oriental White Backed Vultures and Long Billed Vultures had seen a decline of over 99.9 percent.These studies, the petition said, found that the major cause of the population decline of Vultures in India is the veterinary use of the Non-Steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDS) like “Aceclofenac” and “Ketoprofen” in livestock..The plea argued that the residue of these drugs remains within the bodies of livestock if they die within a few days of treatment. It then gets passed on to the vultures when they feed upon them.Bansal demanded that the government should promote use of drugs like Meloxicam for veterinary use as they pose no risk to vultures. He added that an effective mechanism for safety testing of NSAIDs on vultures should also be created before they are launched in the open market.