Alipurduar: The Bengal forest department has come forward to provide funds to the only vulture breeding centre of the state at Rajabhatkhawa in the Buxa Tiger Reserve (BTR).
The centre has been facing acute fund crunch for the past couple of years.
Senior officials of the department said a sum of Rs 97 lakh had been sanctioned for the centre that is being run by the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS).
About 20 years back, it was revealed in a survey that number of vultures was decreasing fast due to use of diclofenac, a veterinary drug used on cattle. The drug that remains in cattle flesh was identified as the cause that is killing the scavenger birds while those were consuming the cattle carcasses.
This led to the decision that captive breeding centres of vultures would be set up to stabilise the dwindling population. The project was taken up by the BNHS and Royal Society for Protection of Birds, UK, came ahead to fund it.
In 2005, the Vulture Conservation Breeding Centre (VCBC) was set up at Rajabhatkhawa in collaboration with the state forest department.
As of now, there are 114 vultures at the centre, which include Oriental White-backed vulture, Long-billed vulture and Slender-billed vulture.
Back in 2008-299, the first captive breeding of a Slender-billed vulture was carried out here. It was first captive breeding of this bird s species in the world.
Later, breeding of the other two species also started. In 2016-2017, 11 vultures have been bred at the centre. In total, 50 vultures have been bred in captivity so far.
Ravikant Sinha, member secretary, VCBC, said: "Funds have been sanctioned for the centre and will be paid both by the state and the central government. The centre is functioning well. We have also planned to set up a new aviary."
Experts at the centre said they were planning to conduct a survey before releasing the birds.
"We will conduct a survey over an area of 30,000sqkm across north Bengal and adjoining areas of Nepal and Bangladesh to find out whether diclofenac is used in the region. If no use of the drug is found, we would release a few vultures, with transmitters fitted to their bodies. Once these birds survive in natural environment, we would think of releasing other birds," said Sachin Ranade, a scientist in BNHS who is in charge of the centre.