Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Md Shahab Uddin has said Bangladesh is ahead of all Asian countries in doing what it takes to protect vultures that are facing a countdown clock to extinction, reports UNB.
The minister was speaking at a discussion on International Vulture Awareness Day 2022 in Dhaka Saturday.
Vultures are well known as highly skilled scavengers and often descend on a single carcass. However, their "impressive ability" to locate their meal also means that a single poisoned carcass can kill multiple birds, and "poisoning is the main reason for the group's catastrophic decline."
The government banned the use of diclofenac, a pain reliever administered to cattle, in 2010. Vultures feeding on cattle carcasses used to die extremely painful deaths as the drug entered their system.
"After the ban, the use of the safer drugs meloxicam and tolfamenic acid started to increase, a big step in the protection of vultures," the minister said.
Bd-pratidin/Ishrar Tabassum
