Relocating carcass dump 2.4 km from power lines saved vultures from electrocution deaths

Relocating a livestock carcass dump 2.4 kilometres away from high-tension power lines near Dehradun may have eliminated a deadly threat for vultures that had already killed 46 of the scavengers in three years, according to a decade-old study published in the Journal of Threatened Taxa.

Between May 2011 and February 2014, researchers conducted 34 surveys in the Sudhauwala region and documented 743 individual vultures across five species. During that period, they recorded 46 vulture carcasses attributable to electrocution near high-tension transmission structures. The Himalayan griffon suffered the highest mortality relative to observations, followed by the Eurasian griffon and the cinereous vulture.

Why electrocution ranks among India's underreported vulture threats

Poisoning, veterinary non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, food scarcity, and habitat loss remain well-documented survival challenges for vultures in India. But electrocution from power infrastructure has been the most underreported threat, according to the study. Vultures are among the most threatened birds globally, having undergone severe population declines across Asia and Africa due to multiple anthropogenic pressures.

"Although surveys were conducted on a non-systematic basis, the number of mortality events observed suggests that electrocution may represent a significant localised threat, particularly for long-lived scavengers such as vultures," the study stated.

A simple fix with lasting results

Based on these observations, local authorities relocated the carcass dumping site about 2.4 km away from the high-risk electricity infrastructure in April 2015. Subsequent observations indicated continued use of the new site by vultures, with no mortality events recorded during limited post-relocation monitoring. Other raptor species, including the black kite and crested serpent eagle, were also recorded at the relocated site.

"Our findings indicated that relocating carcass dumping sites away from hazardous power infrastructure can be a practical conservation measure for reducing electrocution risk and could potentially be applied in other affected areas," Javed Anver of the Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India told The Hindu. Although no studies were conducted after 2015, the carcass dumping site relocation demonstrated the potential of this approach as a practical measure to mitigate vulture mortality.

The study was authored by Javed Anver, Yash Vardhan Singh Sengar, Bikash Ghimire, Vonchano Ngullie, Hemam Rama Nanda, Tashi P. Dorji, Ankit Sharma, Akshay Jain, Sas Biswas, Arun Kumar, and M. Muzahed.

Source: The Hindu