Vibhu Prakash

Bombay Natural History Society | BNHS · Research

Population declines of vultures of the genus Gyps in the Indian Subcontinent in the 1990s and 2000s were among the most rapid global population declines recorded for any bird species. Multiple lines of evidence identified veterinary treatment of cattle with the non‐steroidal anti‐inflammatory drug (NSAID) diclofenac as the principal cause of the vu...

This paper reports results from the eighth of a series of road transect surveys of Gyps vultures conducted across northern, central, western, and north-eastern India since the early 1990s. Populations of the White-rumped Vulture Gyps bengalensis , Indian Vulture G. indicus , and Slender-billed Vulture G. tenuirostris declined rapidly, beginning in...

Dietary analyses are particularly useful for developing conservation programmes for species threatened by resource depletion, poisoning and environmental pollution. Gyps vultures in South Asia represent one such case, having undergone a population collapse caused by feeding on carcasses of cattle treated with the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory dru...

Population declines of Gyps vultures throughout South Asia were caused by unintentional poisoning by the NSAID diclofenac, which was subsequently banned. However, other vulture-toxic NSAIDs are available, including nimesulide, which, in experiments carried out in South Africa, was shown to be toxic to Gyps vultures. We report on safety-testing of n...

After suffering a massive decline (~ 99%) in numbers caused by feeding on livestock carcasses containing the nephrotoxic drug diclofenac, critically endangered Gyps vultures now persist in low numbers in the Indian subcontinent. Most are concentrated near National Parks, likely due to availability of wild carcasses free from toxic veterinary drugs....

Population density and some feeding observations on Collared falconets have been published

Explain the unusual behaviour of critically endangered Siberain crane and Sarus crane

An understanding of the factors affecting the diet composition of critically endangered Gyps vultures in the Indian subcontinent has important applications to the design of effective conservation strategies. After suffering a massive decline (~99%) in numbers caused by veterinary use of the nephrotoxic drug diclofenac, vultures now persist in very...

Populations of the White-rumped Vulture Gyps bengalensis , Indian Vulture G. indicus and Slender-billed Vulture G. tenuirostris declined rapidly during the mid-1990s all over their ranges in the Indian subcontinent because of poisoning due to veterinary use of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac. This paper reports results from the...

Populations of the White-rumped Vulture Gyps bengalensis, Indian Vulture G. indicus and Slender-billed Vulture G. tenuirostris declined rapidly during the mid-1990s all over their ranges in the Indian subcontinent because of poisoning due to veterinary use of the non-steroidal antiinflammatory drug diclofenac. This paper reports results from the la...

Since the most recent annual meeting of the SAVE Partnership in November 2015 there have been two significant scientific publications further highlighting the threats posed by non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). One shows that aceclofenac is a pro-drug of diclofenac, which is converted to diclofenac in cattle, and is therefore as toxic...

One of the many challenges encountered during species conservation programmes is genetic management of threatened populations. Declining populations face the threat of genetic drift and/or imbalance in sex ratios, adding to the risk of extinction. The primary step in genetic management of any population is the isolation of DNA from an available tis...

Long-term captivity is known to alter the microflora of animals. This alteration in microflora could be because of diet or the environment, and might affect the normal physiological functions of the animal. This study was conducted to assess whether captivity had altered the microflora of the critically endangered Gyps vultures of three species - L...

The Slender-billed Vulture is probably the most endangered of the three resident Gyps vulture species of the Indian subcontinent, with a population of less than 1,000 individuals in the wild. A Conservation Breeding Programme was initiated by the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) to save this species from possible extinction. Sex identification...

Three Critically Endangered Gyps vultures endemic to South Asia continue to decline due to the use of diclofenac to treat livestock. High nephrotoxicity of diclofenac to Gyps vultures, leading to death, has been established by experiment and observation, in four out of five Gyps vulture species which occur in South Asia. Declines have also been obs...

Microflora of three Critically Endangered, resident Gyps species of Indian vultures was studied at the Vulture Conservation Breeding Centre, Pinjore, Panchkula district, Haryana. Cloacal and choanal swabs from 32 adult Gyps vultures (10 White-rumped Gyps bengalensis, 11 Long-billed G. indicus and 11 Slender-billed G. tenuirostris) held in captivity...

Microflora of three Critically Endangered, resident Gyps species of Indian vultures was studied at the Vulture Conservation Breeding Centre, Pinjore, Panchkula district, Haryana. Cloacal and choanal swabs from 32 adult Gyps vultures (10 White-rumped Gyps bengalensis , 11 Long-billed G. indicus and 11 Slender-billed G. tenuirostris ) held in captivi...

During the last two decades populations of three resident species of Gyps vulture have declined dramatically and are now threatened with extinction in South Asia. Sex identification of vultures is of key importance for the purpose of conservation breeding as it is desirable to have an equal sex ratio in these monogamous species which are housed tog...

Populations of oriental white-backed vulture (Gyps bengalensis), long-billed vulture (Gyps indicus) and slender-billed vulture (Gyps tenuirostris) crashed during the mid-1990s throughout the Indian subcontinent. Surveys in India, initially conducted in 1991-1993 and repeated in 2000, 2002, 2003 and 2007, revealed that the population of Gyps bengale...

Three South Asian Gyps vulture species are Critically Endangered with extinction, despite having been abundant in the 1990s. The main cause of the declines is now established, being ingestion of a veterinary painkiller, diclofenac, from cattle carcasses, which is toxic to the vultures. Two key actions have been identified by the range state governm...

Diclofenac, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), has caused catastrophic vulture declines across the Indian sub-continent. Here, an indirect ELISA is used to detect and quantify diclofenac in 1251 liver samples from livestock carcasses collected across India between August 2007 and June 2008, one to two years after a ban on diclofenac ma...

Use of the veterinary drug diclofenac is responsible for bringing three species of Gyps vultures endemic to South Asia to the brink of extinction, and the Government of India banned veterinary use of the drug in May 2006. To evaluate the effectiveness of the ban we undertook surveys of > 250 veterinary and general pharmacies in 11 Indian states fro...

Contamination of their carrion food supply with the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac has caused rapid population declines across the Indian subcontinent of three species of Gyps vultures endemic to South Asia. The governments of India, Pakistan and Nepal took action in 2006 to prevent the veterinary use of diclofenac on domesticated...

Veterinary use of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) diclofenac has been shown to be the major cause of the collapse of populations of three Gyps vulture species endemic to South Asia. The White-rumped Vulture Gyps bengalensis, Indian Vulture G. indicus and Slender-billed Vulture G. tenuirostris, have declined by more than 98% in the...

Organochlorine pesticide residues were determined in tissues of five Indian white-backed vultures and two of their eggs collected from different locations in India. All the samples had varying levels of residues. p,p'-DDE ranged between 0.002 microg/g in muscle of vulture from Mudumali and 7.30 microg/g in liver of vulture from Delhi. Relatively hi...

Gyps vulture populations across the Indian subcontinent collapsed in the 1990s and continue to decline. Repeated population surveys showed that the rate of decline was so rapid that elevated mortality of adult birds must be a key demographic mechanism. Post mortem examination showed that the majority of dead vultures had visceral gout, due to kidne...

We tested 41 bats for antibodies against Nipah and Hendra viruses to determine whether henipaviruses circulate in pteropid fruit bats (Pteropus giganteus) in northern India. Twenty bats were seropositive for Nipah virus, which suggests circulation in this species, thereby extending the known distribution of henipaviruses in Asia westward by >1,000...

Although bats of the genus Pteropus are important ecologically as pollinators and natural hosts for zoonotic pathogens, little is known about their basic physiology. Hematology and plasma biochemistries were determined from wild-caught flying foxes (Pteropus giganteus) in northern India (n=41). Mean lymphocyte differential count was higher for juve...

A highly sensitive and specific competitive ELISA on 96-microwell plates was developed for the analysis of the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac. Within the water cycle in Europe, this is one of the most frequently detected pharmaceutically active compounds. The LOD at a signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) of 3, and the IC50, were found to be...

Widespread veterinary use of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac is responsible for the population collapse of three species of Gyps vulture in south Asia; these species are now critically endangered. Vultures die when they consume carcasses of livestock that contain lethal residues of diclofenac. National and international conserva...

Nine species of vultures are recorded from Indian subcontinent. The populations of three resident Gyps species, namely Oriental White-rumped Vulture Gyps bengalensis, Long-billed Vulture Gyps indicus and Slender-billed Vulture Gyps tenuirostris crashed during the mid nineties of the last century. Vulture declines were first documented at Keoladeo N...

Roosts of Eurasian Marsh Harriers Circus aeruginosus were studied for four winters between 1996 and 2000 in and around Keoladeo National Park (KNP), eastern Rajasthan, India. Fourteen communal roosts were found, in which harriers gathered in loose aggregations of 11-132 birds. Roosts were situated in tall grasses and wetlands with floating vegetati...

Since the early 1990s, large and rapid population declines of three species of vulture (Gyps spp.) endemic to south Asia have occurred on the Indian subcontinent and have led to these species being listed by IUCN as critically endangered. Evidence of rates of population decline, cause of death and toxicity is consistent with these declines being ca...

Veterinary use of the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAID) drug diclofenac in South Asia has resulted in the collapse of populations of three vulture species of the genus Gyps to the most severe category of global extinction risk. Vultures are exposed to diclofenac when scavenging on livestock treated with the drug shortly before death. Diclofena...

Blood Serum Constituents' Summary Statistics (69 KB DOC).

Estimating Likely MLE of Meloxicam (31 KB DOC).

Analysis of Phase V Data (21 KB DOC).

Buxa Tiger Reserve (26°30-55'N 89°20-55'E) is located in the north-eastern corner of Jalpaiguri district, West Bengal. It covers an area of 760 km2, with a core area of 385 km2 and a buffer zone 375 km2. The northern and eastern boundaries of the reserve border Bhutan and Assam respectively. The western and southern boundaries are bordered by tea g...

The DNA polymerase gene of a novel herpesvirus, vulture herpesvirus (VHV), isolated from an Indian Gyps vulture was completely sequenced using primer walking and transposon insertion strategies. DNA sequencing analysis revealed a single open reading frame (ORF) of 3660 nucleotides (53% G-C content) able to encode 1219 amino acids. Identification wa...

Recent declines in the populations of three species of vultures in the Indian subcontinent are among the most rapid ever recorded in any bird species. Evidence from a previous study of one of these species, Gyps bengalensis, in the Punjab province of Pakistan, strongly implicates mortality caused by ingestion of residues of the veterinary non-stero...

Rapid population declines of the vultures Gyps bengalensis , Gyps indicus and Gyps tenuirostris have recently been observed in India and Pakistan, continuing at least up to 2003. Surveys indicate annual rates of decline of 22–50% for G. bengalensis and G. indicus during 2000–03. Previous studies in Pakistan have shown that the non‐steroidal anti‐in...

Globally threatened Sarus cranes Grus antigon are resident at Keoladeo National Park World Heritage site and the surrounding area near Bharatpur, Western Rajasthan, India. In winter, they are joined by c. 200 wintering common cranes Grus grus. On 23 November 2000, 15 Sarus cranes and three common cranes were found dead in a field adjacent to the pa...

The Black Baza Aviceda leuphotes occurs very locally from Uttaranchal to south peninsular India and Sri Lanka, through to Bangladesh and South-East Asia. It is rare and local in much of its range in the Indian subcontinent (Ali and Ripley 1987, Grimmett et al. 1998, Kazmierczak 2000). The species has black upperparts with conspicuous white and ches...

During the 1990s, populations of two species of griffon vulture, the Indian white-backed Gyps bengalensis and the long-billed Gyps indicus, declined by more than 90% throughout India. These declines are continuing and are due to abnormally high rates of both nesting failure and adult, juvenile and nestling mortality. Affected birds exhibit signs of...

In 2000, we conducted a survey to quantify the declines in the populations of Gyps bengalensis and G. indicus across India since 1990–1993. Directly comparable data for the two periods were obtained from over 6000 km of road transect surveys carried out in protected areas, the regions around protected areas and linking highways across the country....