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White-rumped vulture on verge of extinction

UNB, Dhaka
White-rumped vultures (Gyps bengalensis) are disappearing fast from Bangladesh due to the unchecked use of toxic drugs in cattle apart from food crisis and the loss of their habitats.
"Toxic veterinary drugs like diclofenac and ketoprofen used in saving cattle from diseases accelerate the decline of vultures in the country. When the vultures eat the dead bodies of cattle after the use of these drugs, they simply die," Prof M Anwarul Islam, the chief executive of Wildteam, told the news agency.
He said the severe food crisis also contributes to the decline in the vultures as a very few cattle die in the country each year. "However, when domestic animals die, farmers buried them."
Prof M Anwarul Islam, also a teacher of Zoology Department at Dhaka University, said vultures make nests on large trees but the number of such trees is now rare in Bangladesh.
Wildlife biologist Dr Monirul H Khan said the white-rumped vultures were critically endangered in Bangladesh and they would disappear soon if immediate measures were not taken to protect them.
According to a study conducted by Dr Monirul H Khan, a teacher of Zoology Department at Jahangirnagar University, showed that the white-rumped vulture has declined by about 60 percent during 2008 and 2012 in the country while 98 percent in the last two decades.
The total population of the white-rumped vulture in suitable habitats across the country shows that the total population has drastically declined from an estimate 1,972 in 2008-2009 to 816 in 2011-2012.
IUCN vulture investigator ABM Sarowar Alam (Dipu) said the vultures were disparaging faster than the other endangered species in the country.
TOXIC DRUG IS KEY PLAYER
Although the government has already banned the veteri-nary diclofenac to protect the vulture, the drug is still available in the market and three other new non-steroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) - meloxicam, ketoprofen and sodium salicylate - are introduced for veterinary treatments, which are also harmful to vultures.
The study said the availability of diclofenac in drugstores has decreased by 37 percent but the availability of three the other new NSAIDs has increased.
Dr Monirul H Khan said the potential threats like loss of habitats, food crisis and poisoning by pesticide might contribute to the decline of vultures in Bangladesh but those are certainly less than that of diclofenac.
SAVE THE NATURAL CLEANERS
Monirul H Khan said in the past farmers hardly treated their domestic animals when they had been affected by diseases, but now the domestic animals are undergone treatment if they fall sick.
The biologist said the vulture was called natural cleaner as they eat germs and poisons contained in wastes and dead animals. "If they go to extinction, the country's biodiversity will be badly affected. Diseases will be endemic since other animals could not digest poisons."