Decision to release rare breed donkeys this year

The rare white-backed vultures at the Vultures Rehabilitation Center in Changa Manga forest near Lahore are eager to fly in the open air, but experts say it may be dangerous to leave them in the open for now.

The drugs that caused the disappearance of vultures in Pakistan are still being sold under different names across the country. On the other hand, WWF officials say that this year it has been decided to experimentally release two vultures in the Wildlife Protected Area and National Park. Breeding white-backed vultures in a controlled environment is a more difficult task than in a natural environment, but Punjab Wildlife and WWF have achieved significant success in this. In a long period of 18 years, 15 vultures have been bred.

In 2005, Punjab Wildlife in collaboration with WWF established the Vulture Center in Changamanga forest where 14 male and female vultures were kept but now after 18 years their number has increased to 29. Including 16 adult vultures, 10 sub-adults and 3 chicks. 5 eggs have been obtained during the current breeding season. The cost of this project is 82.23 million rupees, of which 77 million rupees have been spent.

Deputy Director Punjab Wildlife Junaid Alam told Express that the first ten years were quite difficult. During this time, many experiments were conducted for keeping vultures and their breeding and hatching and finally it was successful. He said that the most important problem for us at the moment is how to release these vultures in the natural environment because the threats to them in the natural environment have not been reduced.

He said that vultures started to disappear in the natural environment in Pakistan in the 90s. This was largely due to painkiller vaccines given to cattle, which contain dichlorophenic acid. When the vultures eat the flesh of these dead animals, it causes their kidneys to fail, while other causes are soap, gelatin and oil distillers from dead bones.

WWF representative and in-charge of the Vulture Conservation Project, Jamshed Chaudhry, told Express, “We have decided to release two birds into the natural environment this year. These birds will be released in a wildlife national park or a protected area after being fitted with a transmitter.”

Jamshed Chaudhry says that diclofenac, which causes the disappearance of these vultures, has been banned for many years, but this salt is being used in medicine under different names. He said that in this regard, a survey was conducted in all the districts of Punjab and various medical stores were checked, from which it was revealed that dangerous salt for vultures is being used in four or five medicines and those medicines are being sold in general.

He said that therefore the risk cannot be taken again that the vultures which have been obtained after 18 years of hard work should be released back into the natural environment, so we will release them in a protected area and a national park so that it is a dead wild animal. They will be able to eat meat that will not be dangerous for them.

He further informed that at present in Pakistan, only the area of ​​Nagarparkar Sindh is safe for vultures where an area of ​​about 100 km has been declared as vultures safe zone. Wild life expert and member of Punjab Wildlife Board Badr Munir says that this wildlife restoration project is a success story in terms of research. But now the second important task is to release them in the natural environment.

He said that compared to the past, the trend of throwing dead animals in the open fields is also decreasing to a great extent and instead of throwing the dead animals in the open, they dig a hole in the ground. Apart from this, we are trying to ensure the ban on the sale of all such drugs that are used in animals. He said that a new aviary has also been prepared at Changamanga and in the next few weeks the adult vultures will be shifted to the new aviary where they will be able to fly to lower levels.