Vulture Conservation Campaign at Masinagudi

Date: August 16, 2012
Venue: Masinagudi Village, Nilgiri District
Organisers: Arulagam, Tamil Nadu Forest Department and District Education Department
Target group: Local students and teachers and Nature lovers of Masinagudi
Purpose: To spread awareness about endangered vultures and threat to vulture populations because of Diclofenac drug.
Medium: Human chain rally, personal interaction and printed materials.
Funding / Collaboration: CEPF

Vulture conservation campaign was conducted on Aug 16, 2012 by Arulagam at Masinagudi Village in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve. As part of the work, a rally was organised and students of Government High school, Masinagudi actively participated.

The students took a procession in the town and urged the people in the region to stop the practice of administering ‘illegal’ Diclofenac to cattle. The students also had placard requesting the people to stop poisoning the cattle killed by wild animals and also to leave dead wild animals to be consumed by vultures. They also shouted slogans in Tamil towards the conservation of vultures. The procession started at the Masinagudi High School and ended at Bus stand, where the importance of conservation of vultures were shared with the people. Procession was declared start by Mr.Sundar, Masinagudi Range officer and Mr. Karthika Rajkumar welcomed the gathering. Mr. Chandran, Counselor of local panchayath and Mr. Subramanian, Principal of Government school presided over the function.

During the rally, students wore Vulture masks, which were made by students under the guidance of Mr. Vijaya kumar and Mr.Jone Lincton of Arulagam. Local people namely Mr.Bashir, Mr.Anish from Taxi Driver Association, Mr.Siva from Green Care Trust, Dr. Jermila of Child care, Mrs.Supraba from USSS- an NGO, Mr. Samsun and 30 volunteers joined the procession. The event was arranged by Arulagam team namely, Mr. Bharathidasan, Mr. Venkatachalam, Mr. Sakthivel and Ms. Revathi.

Moyar valley holds the last batch of vultures, which has been declared as Critically endangered species by IUCN. Arulagam is working towards restoration of Vulture population in Moyar Valley with the support of Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF).

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