MULTAN, Feb 14: The Kathmandu Summit of South Asian countries, facing extinction of three species of the sub-continental vultures, has underscored the need to control the veterinary use of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) - diclofenac - to reduce mortalities of the scavenger bird in order to avoid ecological damage.

Talking to Dawn on his return from the summit, the president emeritus of the Ornithological Society of Pakistan, Prof Dr Aleem Ahmad Khan, said the summit had recognized that three Gyps vulture species - oriental white-backed vulture, long-billed vulture and slander-billed vulture - were now critically endangered, and an immediate action was required to save them from extinction.

He said the delegations representing the governments and NGOs in Pakistan, India and Nepal, besides the partners in the research on Indian vulture crisis attended the summit held on Feb 6 last to evolve strategy to conserve the endangered species of the vultures after findings of the research that 'diclofenac' residues in the carcasses of livestock were playing havoc with the vulture population in the subcontinent.

Although a number of nature conservatory bodies took part in the research from Pakistan, India, Nepal and US, it were OSP, Peregrine Fund of America and the Institute of Applied and Pure Biology of the Bahauddin Zakariya University, which mainly carried research spanned over four years in about 16 colonies of the OWBVs in Kasur, Khanewal, Layyah and Muzaffargarh.

Postmortems and necropsies of the dead OWBVs dawned during the research that a majority of them had gout and renal diseases, which caused their death. This led to the hypothesis that the ingested veterinary pharmaceuticals might be responsible for renal diseases, as the primary source of food for OWBVs in Pakistan had been the dead domestic livestock.

Later, surveys established that NSAID diclofenac was available at all the stores of veterinary medicines and that the drug had become available in retail for veterinary use in the recent years, the period when conservators observed a drastic decline in the population of OWBVs.

Prof Khan said the summit had also agreed and endorsed that the veterinary use of 'diclofenac' was responsible for environmental toxicity and catastrophic decline in the population of Gyps vultures in India, Pakistan and Nepal.

The OSP chief said the summit recommend that the governments of the countries facing vulture crisis should immediately recognize the seriousness of the issue considering the loss of species (biodiversity value), and the potential role played by vultures in stopping the spread of disease in mankind.

Recognizing the ultimate objective of species' recovery, the summit recommended a two-phase strategy - immediate capture and safekeeping of vultures to establish a captive breeding and release programme and establishment of a minimum of three centres each having a capacity to shelter at least 25 pairs of each of the endangered Gyps species.

Prof Khan said the OSP had donated 25 acres near the Taunsa Barrage to establish a 'breading and release centre' for the endangered Gyps species while the UAE's Environmental Research and Wildlife Development Agency had offered to keep 25 pairs of each of the endangered species, besides providing training to about three to four nationals of the affected countries.

The summit further recommended constitution of a technical group to evaluate the performance of captive breeding centres, as this method was regarded as complex one demanding resources to develop infrastructure and expertise to run such facilities. Private-public partnership was also stressed at national and international level to fulfil the task.