Animal conservationists welcomes step, say safe alternatives available
The Drugs Control Department of Tamil Nadu filed charges against 104 suppliers, distributors, manufacturers and retailers of Diclofenac in the state. The medicine was banned for veterinary use by the Government of India in 2006, since it was found to be the main cause of a dramatic decline (99 per cent) of the vulture population across Asia.
“We got the details of the retailers and wholesalers from the distributors and conducted surprise raids,” K Sivabalan, director of drug control, told Down to Earth.
The malpractice had been going on for a year and a half, he added. “Only a single-dose 3-millilitre vial of Diclofenac is permitted for human use but these retailers and wholesalers had been selling multidose vials for animals,” he said.
The Government of India formally put a cap on the Diclofenac vial size in 2015, following evidence presented by the Bombay Natural History Society team that the bigger size vials were being misused for veterinary use.
Conservationists welcomed the step and said that such steps should be taken across the country.
Tamil Nadu’s decision to enforce the vial-size restriction on Diclofenac for use on cattle is one of the rare instances of policies to protect vultures being implemented by local governments, said S Bharathidasan of Arulagam, a non-governmental organisation and partner of Saving Asia's Vultures from Extinction (SAVE) initiative. It has been working towards vulture conservation in Tamil Nadu.
He said:
The government has also actively moved to curtail the use of other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, such as ketoprofen and flunixin, in the Nilgiris, Erode and Coimbatore — the few vulture strongholds in the state.
“There are safe alternative drugs available, so there is no justification to allow this illegal practice of continued Diclofenac use, said Chris Bowden, Globally Threatened Species Officer for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and programme manager for SAVE.
Meloxicam and tolfenamic acid are cheap and safe options and out of patent, he added. “So drug manufacturers and suppliers should focus on producing them and help the vulture population recover.”
If Diclofenac can be fully removed from veterinary practice across India, we can start releasing vultures from the breeding programmes, and look for population recovery, he said, adding:
There is one final step required though: To regulate the use of three other dangerous drugs — aceclofenac, nimesulide and ketoprofen – all proven vulture killers. But with safe options available, this step seems a small price to pay for saving India’s nine vulture species from extinction.
This is a part of our routine operations, said Sivabalan. In every district of the state, drug control inspectors conduct minimum 55 raids each month and collect samples for inspection, he added.
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