Posts by Mary Davies

In a collaborative effort led by the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC) and Department of Forests and Soil Conservation (DoFSC) under the Ministry of Forests and Environment, Government of Nepal, a renewed and updated Vulture Conservation Action Plan (VCAP) for the years 2023 to 2027 has been developed. This comprehensive strategy, developed…

The Drugs Technical Advisory Board of India has formally recommended national bans of two veterinary drugs known to be highly toxic to vultures. The statement was made by the Indian Health Ministry and Central Drugs Standards Control Organisation (CDSCO), and further reinforced at the Delhi High Court hearing this week. Both drugs are painkillers, frequently…

As always there is some fantastic work going on across the SAVE region, and two examples of this have recently been made into short films. We have previously shared the news about the final releases of birds in Nepal. The RSPB have recently commissioned a short film on this which can be seen here With…

Following the recent release of the final captive birds in Nepal, it was devastating to hear that a poisoning bait incident had happened nearby. On the morning of 13th March, 2023, six White-rumped Vultures were discovered dead in Kerunga River near the dumping site of Kawasoti Municipality. The authorities, including the Division Forest office, Chitwan…

A National-level Conference on Vulture Conservation and Reintroduction in Madhya Pradesh (MP) was co-organized by the MP Forest Department, Van Vihar National Park-Zoo and Bombay Natural History Society on the 20th and 21st March 2023 at RCVP Noronha Academy for Administration and Management, Bhopal. The Chief Guest was Shri J.N. Kansotiya, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary…

On March 16, 2023, a ground-breaking event occurred in Nepal with the first-ever tagging of a Slender-billed Vulture. A team from Bird Conservation Nepal, Jatayu restaurant, and the senior conservation scientist of RSPB Dr John Mallord successfully trapped, tagged, and released one Slender-billed Vulture at the Vulture Safe Feeding Site in Kawasoti, Nawalpur. The team…

On March 11, 2023, a vulture conservation milestone event took place in Nepal, immediately after the successful conclusion of the SAVE meeting. The last remaining captive-reared White-rumped Vultures from the Nepal breeding were all released, having been fitted with GPS/GSM Ornitela tags on their backs and aluminium red leg rings with individual alphanumeric codes. In…

On 9th and 10th March 2023 the first face to face SAVE meeting since 2019 took place in Nawalpur, Nepal. Dr Maheshwar Dhakal, Director General of the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC) chaired the opening session, which was hosted by Dr Ganesh Pant, Ecologist at DNPWC. The program was officially inaugurated by…

We are pleased to highlight a new factsheet produced by the NSAIDs Working Group of the CMS Raptors MoU. https://www.cms.int/raptors/en/page/non-steroidal-anti-inflammatory-drugs-and-vultures This resource can be used to highlight the threat these drugs pose, and has key references and links.

The SAVE online open day took place on 24th January and attracted over 250 registrations from followers from around the world. After introductions and summaries from our SAVE Chair and SAVE Programme manager, we had updates from country partners, followed by special talks on themes such as tagging methodology, a new Vulture Safe Zone initiative,…