Vultures will get seven homes across country

Govt will set up vulture ‘handling and breeding’ centres to address decline in vulture population and the demand put forward by the Parsi community for more vultures in Towers of Silence

Hyderabad: Perturbed with the disappearing population of vultures and the increasing demand from the Parsi community for vultures in its Towers of Silence, the Ministry of Environment and Forests is setting up vulture “handling and breeding” centres at seven locations across the country, one of them being in Hyderabad’s Nehru Zoological Park.

The approval to set up the centers in Hyderabad, Junagarh, Bhubaneshwar, Bhopal, Kolkata, Pinjore (Chandigarh) and Guwahati has come recently. A V Joseph, additional principal chief conservator of forests, said here on Monday that the centers are coming up given the 90 per cent decline of the vulture population and also to address the demand put forward by the Parsi community.

These breeding centers will not create a habitat conducive to breeding, called “captive breeding”, but also improve their feed quality. The Hyderabad centre would get about 45 vultures for breeding. About two years ago, Parsis had informed the Union government about the problems they faced while disposing their dead due to the decline in vulture population.

Hyderabad-based premier research institute, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), had since embarked on an exercise to artificially inseminate vultures. While it succeeded in collecting semen of male vultures for artificial insemination, it didn’t get female vultures.

“This centre would prove helpful now,” said S Shivaji, deputy director CCMB, adding that CCMB’s assistance in breeding the birds would make the centre unique from other centers that rely mainly on natural breeding.

The centres will come up in Hyderabad, Junagarh, Kolkata, Bhubaneshwar, Bhopal, Pinjore (Chandigarh) and Guwahati

* Source: Mumbai Mirror, dated - Tuesday, November 21, 2006.*