still being used. The RSPB needs to be congratulated for their incredible support of the project, without which there would not be a vulture conservation programme. ZLS has sent their vet Andrew Routh over, who has been crucial to the welfare of the birds. BNHS needs to be congratulated in taking on what is a huge conservation programme.


In Nepal they are doing great things with Diclofenac-free zones. Dr Ian Newton has accepted the Chair of a new group called SAVE - Save Asian Vultures from Extinction, which was launched in India and Nepal in February this year, and we slowly but surely move forward to save the vultures from extinction.


their original ranges once they were Diclofenac free. The plan was five centres over the three main countries involved.


The centre at Pinjore, which had been the research centre for one of the groups working together on finding out the cause of the decline ( RSPB, ZSL, NBPT and Bombay Natural History Society), was rapidly turned into a breeding centre and the surviving birds there were the start of the breeding programme. Over time two more Centres were built within India, one in Pakistan and one in Nepal. There are a total number of approximately 260 birds now in captivity, all three species have now been bred in the first Indian facility, and one in the second, the other facilities still have quite young birds, so there will be a wait for them to get to breeding age.


Our (ICBP) continuing involvement with the Centres has been in training of husbandry techniques with the vultures, design of the enclosures, training in incubation and rearing techniques, design of the incubator and brooder rooms and the providing, through the National Birds of Prey Trust, of some of the breeding aviaries and the incubators.


The Trust send out Brinsea Incubators and I am delighted to say that they have worked as well as expected. Simon Brough my Curator has been over twice to India and spent many hours on the phone at 4.00am helping to solve incubation and hatching queries. The team in India have done fantastically with their first attempts at artificial incubation last year. One member of the team came to an incubation course held at ICBP in November 2010, and the first eggs are already hatching in the incubators in Pinjore in January 2011. Diclofenac has been banned from being made in the area and banned as a veterinary drug. The RSPB along with BNHS are monitoring dead cattle to research the amount of Diclofenac


ENVIRONMENT INDUSTRY MAGAZINE |149|


I would guess that if I had a beef at all, it would be that although the States in India (some of them) have done fantastic work and generally helped the projects as much as they can, Indian Central Government still need to come up with more than they have managed so far; if they put a tiny percentage of what they put into Tiger conservation, the vulture programme would be safe and guaranteed.


Come to think of it, I have an even more serious beef: Novartis, who invented the drug in the first place, and no doubt made a fortune with it, have not supported the programme in any serious form, which I think is disgraceful. Drug companies can’t be expected to


test for every eventuality and this was a truly unusual one, however when a huge conservation issue like this comes to light, they should absolutely put up substantial funds to rectify their mistake, and accept their responsibility, because it is undoubtedly theirs.


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