Keeping in mind the severity of the situation and the need to conserve vultures from extinction, the Environment Ministry (MoEF) has requested the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to restrict the pack of Diclofenac for human use in single dose only.
Even after banning the use of Diclofenac for veterinary use, the multi-dose vials available in the market for human use were widely misused for veterinary purpose. This, in turn, has a severe impact on the population of vultures.
Earlier, MoEF, in consultation with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, published a Gazette notification on July 17, 2015, regarding the restriction on packaging of multi-dose vial of Diclofenac to single dose for humans use. However, this notification did not seem to have much impact in the reduction of sale of this drug.
While the multi vials of 30 ml dose is so far available, the advisable dose is three ml for humans and 10-15 ml for adult cattle. This led to misuse of the drug. Subsequently, only three companies in India had voluntarily ceased production but more than 70 others ignored the order. The commonly-used anti-inflammatory drug for cattle is considered the chief cause for the steep decline in the number of vultures in recent years. The drug is harmless to the cattle it is administered to, but is fatal for the vultures, who routinely feed on the carcass of dead cattle. Studies have shown that the drug causes kidney and liver failure in vultures.
As per various studies, three Gyps species of vultures in India had drastically declined by about 99% over the past two decades.