The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has approved setting up of three vulture breeding centres in Tripura.
This was revealed by Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb through a post on his Facebook page.
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Chief Minister on his Facebook page said: “Delighted to announce that Govt of Tripura is working on a vulture breeding & cultivation project, which will be functional soon.”
The Chief Minister also informed that while one vulture breeding centre is coming up in Khowai district, two other centres will be set up at Lembucherra and Dhalai.
Chief Minister Deb said: “Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has recently approved vulture breeding center in Tripura with financial support & tech, which will be supported by Bombay natural history society.”
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The State’s forest officials said, “Vultures are an important component of the forest eco-system. They maintain the balance of the living and dead by devouring remains of dead animals.”
The state forest department has been planning to come up with vulture breeding centre since the last six-seven years.
But it has not been fulfilled due to various reasons.
The forest officials said vultures are now very rare in India.
“Out of the nine species of vultures in the country, the white-rumped vultures, found in Tripura, have been identified as critically endangered or can say almost extinct,” the forest officials said.
The forest officials and locals informed that this species of white-rumped vulture are found on the bank of Tripura’s Khowai river.
During a survey commissioned by the governments of Gujarat and Maharashtra in 2001 it was found that vultures die after feeding on the carcasses of animals having Diclofena in their diet.
Tripura was declared a Dichlophenic-free State few years back.
The forest officials further said before starting breeding of vultures in the centres an aware drive should be carried out among the people of the areas where the brreding centres would be set up.