Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary

It is an estuary and wildlife sanctuary located in Andhra Pradesh.

It is India's second largest stretch of mangrove forest.

It is home to the critically endangered white-backed vulture and the long billed vulture.

Threats:

• Coringa has become one of the fastest growing tourist destinations in the state, prompting the government to allocate funds to domestic and foreign tourists for the creation of amenities.
• The flora and fauna have faced many challenges, from the development of the Polavaram irrigation project to the rapid industrialization along the Kakinada coasts.
• Water flowing in the creeks of the mangrove is a perfect mix of the outcomes of the Godavari and the Bay of Bengal.
• Any change in this balance can alter the quality of the water, which will have a cascading effect on the flora and fauna in turn.
• The big problem is the merging of agricultural and irrigation waste into the river.
• Since more and more fertilisers and pesticides are being used by farmers and aqua farmers in the vicinity to achieve good yield, the residues are carried by water flowing from these fields into the creek.
• The content of pesticides adversely affects the production of honey
• As the honeybees are recognised for their constant flight, the pesticides used by the farmers happen to affect them.
• Uttar Pradesh will have its first conservation centre for endangered vultures at the end of 2019.
• Under the Gorakhpur Forest Division, U.P., the Jatayu Conservation and Breeding Centre will be built at Bhari Baisi village in Pharendra tehsil.

Significance of Vultures:

• The natural cleaners of the ecosystem are vultures.
• They feed on dead animals that die, thus improving the process of returning minerals to the soil.
• In addition, they track the transmission of infectious diseases by disposing of dead bodies.
• The population of animals such as rats and stray dogs continues to rise in the absence of vultures, contributing to the spread of rabies.
  
  

Species of Vultures found in India and their Conservation Status:

01. Bearded Vulture, Near Threatened

02. Cincerous Vulture, Near Threatened

03. Egyptian Vulture, Endangered

04. Griffon Vulture, Least Concern

05. Himalayan Vulture/Griffon, Near Threatened

06. Indian Vulture, Critically Endangered

07. Indian White-rumped Vulture, Critically Endangered

08. Red-headed Vulture, Critically Endangered

09. Slender-billed Vulture, Critically Endangered

Threats to Vulture Survival in India:

• Veterinary use of analgesic diclofenac, habitat degradation, pesticide contamination, slow breeding rate, lack of carcasses, feeding of poisoned carcasses and lack of legal protection are the major threats to the survival of vultures in India.
• The principal threat to vultures in India is the veterinary use of diclofenac.
• Diclofenac is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) that is used to relieve muscle pain and is a part of almost all gels, creams and sprays.
• The medication is similarly effective in cattle as well, and it decreases joint discomfort when offered to working animals and thus keeps them working for longer.
• Since it takes a lot of time for the kidneys to flush this drug out of the system, it remains in the bovine body even after death.
• As Vultures, they're scavengers, feeding on the dead. When they ingest the infected flesh of diclofenac, their kidneys stop working, leading to death.
• Another big threat to vultures in India is habitat loss.
• Vultures in India are also endangered by pesticide emissions.
• The D.D.T (Dichloro Diphenyl Trichloroethane) chlorinated hydrocarbon used as a pesticide reaches the body of Vultures via the food chain where it affects the function of the estrogen hormone, as a result of which the egg shell is weakened, resulting in premature egg hatching causing the embryo to die.
• In one breeding season, vultures lay a single egg. Their slow breeding rate is therefore a threat to their survival as well.
• Vultures in India are also endangered by the use of poisoned carcasses as bait by humans to kill cattle-marauding carnivores.

The following are the major measures taken by the government to protect the country's vultures:

• White backed, Long Billed and Slender Billed Vultures' protection status has been upgraded from Schedule IV to Schedule I of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972.
• At Panchkula, a 'Vulture Captive Care facility' has been developed.
• The Ministry of Health has forbidden the manufacturing of Diclofenac for animal use and prohibited single-dose packaging of multi-dose vials of Diclofenac.
• Local conservation organisations have conducted a drug-swapping programme to promote the use of non-toxic alternative medicine (meloxicam) where farmers could exchange any diclofenac stored prior to the ban for an equivalent amount of meloxicam.
• A National Action Plan (2006) on Vulture Conservation was formulated by the Government of India.
• The Action Plan sets out measures to contain the decrease in the population of vultures by ex-situ, in-situ vulture conservation.
• Captive breeding centres have also been set up by the Central Zoo Authority at Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Junagarh and Hyderabad Zoos.
• Initiatives to improve mass education and understanding of vulture conservation have also been introduced by the Ministry.

Breeding centres for habitat: Ex-situ conservation programme:

At present, at Rani in Guwahati (Assam), Pinjore (Haryana), Buxa (West Bengal), and Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh), India has four vulture breeding facilities. Vulture Protected Zones-In-situ project for conservation.

The Vulture Safe Zone (VSZ) is a geographical region with a distance of at least 100 Km designated as a natural habitat for wild vultures and free of the involvement of the medication diclofenac in animal carcasses.