TN Govt. Releases Wild Animal Carcass Management Guidelines - Important Step in Vulture Conservation
The Tamil Nadu Forest Department has recognised that burying or burning wild animal carcasses means that vultures and other scavengers are not able to carry out their ecosystem services and may miss out on an important safe food supply.
The Advanced Institute for Wildlife Conservation released the new guidelines at the inaugural meeting of the Tamil Nadu Raptor Research Foundation in Chennai on 2nd September, and this is an important step towards securing the ecosystem – as so many carcasses are unnecessarily disposed of – often at great expense or further detriment to the environment.
The guidelines outline protocols for leaving (or transporting) carcasses and advocating for the natural decomposition of carcasses and technical protocols are to be followed in the wild ecosystems, including reserved forests and protected areas.
This follows earlier exemplary steps taken by the Tamil Nadu Government to enforce diclofenac measures in 2022 and most recently the new nimesulide regulations in April 2025 with the Government filing over 100 prosecutions for illegal sales in each case – and which have been warmly welcomed by the vulture conservation community
The Raptor Research Foundation was inaugurated by Ms. Supriya Sahu. M. the Additional Chief Secretary, Dept of Environment, Climate Change and Forest in presence of Mr. Ragesh Kumar Dogra, PCCF & Chief wildlife warden and Mr. A. Udhayan, PCCF & Director, AIWC.
SAVE Advisor Chris Bowden also presented at the meeting, and highlighted the value of satellite tagging vultures to understand the less visible threats through vulture movements and mortality monitoring.
SAVE congratulates the publication of these guidelines, and hopes that other states around India will follow Tamil Nadu’s initiative on this. This follows earlier exemplary steps taken by the Tamil Nadu Government to enforce diclofenac measures in 2022 and most recently the new nimesulide regulations in April 2025 with the Government filing over 100 prosecutions for illegal sales in each case – and which have been warmly welcomed by the vulture conservation community.
Compiled by Chris Bowden, SAVE Advisor & Bharathidasan S, Arulagam Secretary