Conservation Threats on Critically Endangered Gyps Vultures in the Tamil Nadu Part of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, Southern India

Vultures play an essential role in environmental health by scavenging meat from carcasses and take place end of the ecosystem as decomposer, without which the ecosystem is incomplete. The vultures are under serious threat in all its distribution ranges. In Southern India, there are five species of vultures successfully thriving unlike Northern Indian population. Still, there are many conservation threats such as livestock grazing, bamboo cutting, non-timber forest product collection, honey collection, pilgrims threat, and deliberate poisoning threatening the securement of the population. This paper discusses the conservation threats and its impacts in the southernmost wild viable vulture population.