A small but significant news-item published on Page 3 of this newspaper on Monday has attracted the attention of a large number of readers. It is about an order passed by the Gauhati High Court in respect to a bail petition moved by one Dhanapati Das of Kamrup district, who has been accused of killing of as many as 25 Himalayan griffon vultures, a highly endangered species of birds a few months ago. Das, a resident of village Sonapur under Panitema post office in the jurisdiction of Kamalpur police station in Kamrup district had allegedly killed by poisoning the 25 highly endangered birds. The police in fact was prompt enough to register a case against him in the Kamalpur police station (Case No 64/2019) under Section 429 of the Indian Penal Code, read with Section 51(a) of the Wildlife (Protection) Act. The High Court, in its order of April 4, which came to the notice of the media pretty late, probably due to the hustle and bustle of the Lok Sabha election, has mentioned that Das, the accused pleading for bail after being held in custody for nearly four weeks since the occurrence of the incident, was alleged to have killed some vultures by poisoning. The High Court also put it on record that the vulture is now an endangered species as per the Schedule appended to the Forest Act. While granting bail to Das, the High Court, considering the allegations made against the accused-petitioner, directed him to plant 25 plants in the forest area under the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), Northern Range, Hajo, to be identified by the said DFO within a period of 15 (fifteen) days after his release on bail. While it is for the DFO of Hajo to confirm whether the accused, released on bail in April, had actually planted the 25 plants or not, it is a welcome direction passed by the Gauhati High Court, so that the accused person learns a lesson for life, in the process also contributing positively towards the regeneration of habitat for various wildlife species. The Himalayan vulture or Himalayan griffon vulture – scientific name Gyps himalayensis– is an Old World vulture in the family Accipitridae. Closely related to the European griffon vulture and once considered a subspecies of it, this species is now found only along the Himalayas and the adjoining Tibetan Plateau, including Assam. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has placed Himalayan griffon vulture in its Red List of Threatened Species and has marked it as ‘near extinct’, with conservationists struggling against all odds to protect and conserve it so that it does not vanish altogether. Given this backdrop, the offence committed by Dhanapati Das, if proved to be true, is of very serious nature, and conservationists and nature-lovers across Assam would definitely wait for a speedy disposal of the case with the accused getting stringent punishment. Needless to say, the directive to plant 25 saplings is only part of the High Court’s bail order, and the case does not end there itself. The case of Dhanapati Das however is not the first or only case of killing of vultures through poisoning in Assam. It was only in March and April last year that 57 vultures belonging to three different species: Himalayan griffon (Gyps himalayensis), Oriental white-backed (Gyps bengalensis) and slender-billed vulture (Gyps tenuirostris) –all figuring in the IUCN Red List – were killed by poisoning in three different villages in Sivasagar district. Twenty vultures on the other hand were killed in a similar manner in Dhemaji in March 2017, with conservationists saying Assam was fast becoming a graveyard for endangered vulture. While biologists and conservationists have identified rampant use of ‘Diclofenac’ – once the most commonly-used livestock analgesic/anti-inflammatory drug – as the reason behind death of vultures feeding on domestic animal carcasses, it is here that the government, and may be the court too, to issue strict directives against use of ‘Diclofenac’ as also throwing animal carcasses in open fields. One effective way to stop this menace is the penalize concerned panchayat officials of specific areas, so that the panchayat itself wakes up and ensures that villagers safely bury animal carcasses, in the process help conserve the vultures.