India Launches First Vulture Conservation Portal in Assam for Biodiversity Monitoring.

India opens its first Vulture Conservation Portal in Assam to keep track of Biodiversity

 Introduction

• India’s first ever Vulture Conservation Portal launched in Assam (September 2025) India’s First vulture conservation portal has been launched in assam. The platform is intended to serve as a centralised repository to conserve information at population level and to support the monitoring and conservation of vultures, for both, Alive and Dead. The development is noteworthy considering that vulture- A6 a critically endangered species in India has its decline leading to a severe ecological imbalance.
• The scheme is in consonance with India’s international commitments on CMS, CBD and the UN SDGs and is primarily aimed at conserving the wildlife and its habitat under the overall objectives of the scheme.

 Why are Vultures Important?

• The Ecological Niche: Vultures are nature’s clean-up crew, feasting on dead animals and helping to stop the spread of diseases that can jump from animals to humans, such as anthrax, rabies and botulism.
• Economic Impact-Their extinction in the country resulted into the increased population of stray dogs in India because of which rabies cases increased that costs the economy nearly ₹12,000 crore a year (ICMR estimate).
• Cultural Importance: Vultures are associated with funerary rituals and ecological cleansing processes in most traditional and tribal societies.

 Vulture Crisis in India

• India’s vulture population declined more than 95% between the 1990s and early 2000s.
• The main culprit was the veterinary medicine diclofenac, which is poisonous to vultures if it enters their systems through the use of cattle carcasses as food.

Other threats include:

• Pesticide and carcass-laced bait poisoning.
• Electrocution and power line strikes.
• Deforestation and urbanization disappearing habitat.
• Food shortage as carcass availability declines.

India now has 9 species of vultures, 4 of which are critically endangered:

• White-rumped Vulture
• Indian Vulture
• Slender-billed Vulture
• Red-headed Vulture

 India’s First Vulture Conservation Portal: Salient Features

• On-going Monitoring: Monitoring of vulture’s sighting, breeding behavior, nesting site, and mortality.
• Data crowdsourcing: – Field observations can be uploaded by citizens, forest department, and NGOs.
• Geo-tagging of Incidents: Identifies hotspots for poisonings and electrocutions.
• Policy Assistance: Supplies information for government measures and lawsuits.
• Support for research: Helps scientists in their efforts to model the populations and track their changes.
• Inter-link: Associated with the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) and the State Forest Departments.

 Assam as the Launchpad

• Assam hosts a large number of critically endangered White-rumped and Slender-billed vultures.
• Assam Two VSZs have been established in the Assam Valley in the state.
• It lies on the Himalayan and Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot, being one of the key areas for vulture survival.
•  Government Measures for Conservation of the Vultures
• Action Plan for Vulture Conservation in India 2020–2025: On safe zones, captive breeding and banning of toxic NSAIDs.
• Reproductive Centres: Set up in Haryana, West Bengal, Assam and Madhya Pradesh.
• Ban on Diclofenac (2006): Restricted veterinary use For, to protect vultures.
• Green Energy Corridors: Addressing bird hits by wires.
• Community Participation: Farmer and veterinary education programmes.

 Global Context

• Vultures are threatened everywhere, but particularly in Africa and Asia.
• The Multi-species Action Plan to Conserve African-Eurasian Vultures (2017-2029) CMS provides an international template.
• India’s portal has potential to become a model of regional collaboration in South Asia and with Nepal, Bangladesh, and Bhutan.

 UPSC Relevance

Prelims:

• Vulture species and IUCN status.
• Veterinary drug prohibition (diclofenac, ketoprofen, aceclofenac).
• Biodiversity Hotspots in India.

Mains (GS-3: Environment & Ecology):

“What do you understand by vultures and how they are important in ecology of India, also discuss the initiatives that has been started for their conservation?”

“Assess the progress of India as per Action Plan for Vulture Conservation (2020–25).”

 PYQ Reference

UPSC Prelims 2012:

“Vultures that once made headlines arent feeding on corpses due to the (a) Increase in tigers b) increase in the number of leopards (c) Increase in dogs and cats (d) Use of diclofenac to treat livestock.” (Answer: d)

UPSC GS-3 Mains 2018:

“How do we get human value from biodiversity? “Describe the threats to biodiversity in India and the measures to be taken for conserving it.

 Way Forward

• Extend Vulture Safe Zone network through out of India.
• Tighten Drug Regulation: Enforce absolute prohibition of vulture-toxic drugs.
• Public Engagement: Encourage the local community to report in the conservation through the portal.
• Academic Research: Collaborate with universities to study at higher levels of ecology.
• Cross Border Linkages:Establish a South Asian Vulture Conservation Network.

 Conclusion

• The recentbrnews of India’s first Vulture Conservation Portal that has gone live in Assam is indeed a significantchronicle in digital biodiversity governance. By integrating technology, community involvement and science, the portal has the potential to be transformative in the restoration of India’s vulture populations.
• As India grapples with development versus conservation, safeguarding these ecological sentinels is a matter of not just environmental obligation, but also public health necessity.