The flock, which was seen at the lake site located at Anand Namunaban Village Development Committee Ward No. 7 in Butwal, was identified as the rare vulture species by the Happy Flight Group, Nawalparasi, which is the district branch of Roots & Shoots Nepal, an NGO involved in conservation. [break]
Unfortunately, however, 14 of the vultures were found dead on Thursday morning under suspicious circumstances. The team of conservationists, who reached Butwal on Friday, claimed that the vultures died after consuming a poisoned carcass of a dog.
“It is sad that we have lost such rare species of vultures,” Dilli Ram Chaudhary, president, Happy Flight Group, told myrepublica.com. He said the dog could have been thrown in the open on Wednesday. Chaudhary´s team found the dead vultures only few hours after burying the poisoned dog on Thursday morning.
Chaudhary, whose organization works for vulture conservation, added, “Since the past four years we have put in so much effort to save and nurture each individual vulture in the region. But due to negligence of a few locals, we lost 14 vultures all at once.”
Happy Flight Group runs vulture restaurants in Butwal.
“Reckless and unmonitored use of deadly toxics has become a major threat to our environment and animals” -- Manoj Gautam, Conservationist
Conservationists have attributed rampant and unmanaged used of pesticides and other toxics as the cause of such an irreparable loss.
“The random sell and use of such toxic and unmanaged disposal of animals killed from toxics has led to this tragedy,” Manoj Gautam, coordinator of Roots & Shoots Nepal and a leading conservationist, told myrepublica.com.
Gautam said that the municipality offices “must check dealing and distribution” of pesticides. He informed that the Lalitpur municipality alone has poisoned 16 street dogs so far this fiscal.
“In this particular case, our initial investigation has revealed that the vultures did not die of avian influenza and there was no use of Diclosenac sodium on the dog, which means some other pesticide was used to kill the dog,” Gautam said.
“Such reckless and unmonitored use of deadly toxics has become a major threat to our environment and animals,” Gautam added.
Roots & Shoots have called upon the concerned authorities to help in its investigation and have drawn their attention to stop unmanaged disposable of poisoned animal carcasses.
“Authorities should have been alert after the vultures were spotted. But the officials showed no interest whatsoever,” Gautam said, adding, “The government should look for options rather than resorting to killing dogs in such an inhumane manner.”
akanshya@myrepublica.com
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