Sundarbans, Sylhet haors vulture safe
The Sundarbans and its adjacent areas in greater Khulna, and haor areas in greater Sylhet have been declared Bangladesh's first Vultures Safe Zones (VSZ) where the government will conduct close monitoring to protect the birds from being extinct.
The declaration came at a meeting of SAVE (Saving Asia's Vultures from Extinction), a consortium, which is working to protect vultures and will also assist the forest department in the move, held yesterday at a hotel in the capital.
Officials of the environment and forests ministry said they will publish a gadget notification regarding the declaration in a day or two.
With the help of the local administration, the forest department will conduct special drives in the regions to check the sale and use of banned veterinary medicines of diclofenac group which cause kidney failure of the vultures two to three days after they had eaten dead animals especially cattle, said Dr Tapan Kumar Dey, forest conservator, Wildlife Management and Nature Conservation Division, Dhaka.
Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, who attended the meeting as chief guest, said other harmful drugs of Ketoprofen group will be banned very soon.
The team will also promote use of veterinary drug meloxicam which is safe for the birds.
According to a report of IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Bangladesh, presented in the meeting, Khulna VSZ is 27,717 square kilometres long and the one in Sylhet zone is 19,663.18 square kilometre.
The report also said the number of white rumped vultures (Gyps bengalensis), last of the three species still available in the country, is only 500.
The other two species- Slender-billed vulture (Gyps tenuirostris) and red-headed vulture (Sarcogyps calvus) have already been died out.
The number of vultures in the Indian sub-continent has decreased to 10,000 from a total of 40 million in last 20 years, the report added.
Yunus Ali, chief conservator of Bangladesh Forest Department, was present among others.
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