Misleading Vulture Article

A recent article published in the Economist ‘How do you replace 40 million dead vultures?’ by Sudipto Sanyal brought important attention to the vulture story across Asia, but in doing so, it also made some unfortunate omissions.

Chris Bowden of the RSPB, who was quoted in the article, has requested to use this space to clarify that some of the potentially misleading impressions are not the views of the RSPB, nor of SAVE. Whilst much of the article is well written and factually correct, the article is misleading in several respects.

The article rightly praises the crucial measures taken by the Indian Government in veterinary drug regulation (originally for diclofenac, but more recently for ketoprofen, aceclofenac and nimesulide). However, it fails to highlight how the Indian Government has also stepped up in financially supporting and delivering the conservation breeding efforts for three Critically Endangered vulture species, especially in Haryana, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and more recently in Assam. This deserves to be highly applauded and is a great testament to the national and international vulture conservation programme. For these states, and for Tamil Nadu, there have been exceptional additional efforts to implement the National Vulture Action Plan for India, including in-situ measures, for example in developing Vulture Safe Zones.

The Bombay Natural History Society has managed and led the implementation of many of these programmes on the ground in India, with technical support from a range of organisations, including some SAVE Partners. We celebrate today that this continues to be taken forward by the Indian institutions involved, and especially by the Indian Government.

One further omission from the article was that the breakthrough regarding the role of veterinary diclofenac in the story of vulture declines was initially made by scientists engaged by the Peregrine Fund. This was a crucial discovery that has led to immense conservation efforts over subsequent years.

Despite these unfortunate omissions and related undercurrents in the article, we hope that such publicity still further raises the profile of this extraordinary story, and that we can continue to work together to combine efforts to successfully Save Asia’s Vultures from Extinction.