Steppe Eagle numbers dip across nations

PUNE: Only 76,935 Steppe Eagles have been reported in nine countries including India in the last 131 years and researchers have warned that their population is declining at an alarming rate.
Pune-based researchers from Ela Foundation recently compiled and analyzed available published literature and photographic records of the Steppe Eagle, revealing that its distributional records from nine countries in the subcontinent, particularly, India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan, Sikkim, Myanmar and Bangladesh have shown 76,935 Steppe Eagles during 131 years from 1882 to 2013.
They said that this is the first such comprehensive compilation on this eagle, whose population is declining at an alarming rate, due to which international researchers are demanding that it be listed as a threatened species. Hence the knowledge of their wintering grounds assumes special importance.
Satish Pande, founder, Ela Foundation along with Anil Mahabal and R M Sharma, former scientists at Zoological Survey of India and researcher Pramod Deshpande have given an overview of the status, distribution, habitat choice, behaviour, population and threats to the wintering Steppe Eagle in India. Pande recently presented a scientific paper in the Palearctic Eagles Conference at Elabuga, Russia, the first such comprehensive paper on the status of this eagle in the Indian subcontinent. The conference was attended by raptor researchers from 16 countries, including Russia, Belarus, Kazakastan, Popland, Bulgaria, Sweden, UK, Spain, Finland and France.
The Steppe Eagle is a winter passage migrant and regular winter visitor to the Indian subcontinent. The reports of distribution of this eagle are scattered in various newsletters, journals, checklists, status reports, survey reports and inventories from the oriental region that are not easily accessible for researchers in India and abroad. Hence, this research.
"Though earlier researchers have reported the southern extent of the Steppe Eagle in India up to Mumbai, our research findings show that the species is found further south of Mumbai, in the states of Goa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala," said Pande. This team of researchers has also stated that though the species was known to be a straggler in south Orissa, Assam and east Pakistan, they have found its distribution further east in Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram and Bangladesh.
Records studied by the researchers show that the eagles were seen as single species or in association with other raptors. "Within the same region where the Steppe Eagles were sighted, up to 59 raptor species have been recorded indicating that such regions were suitable raptor habitats. The altitudinal distribution within the Indian subcontinent ranged from zero metre in Gujarat and Kerala to 4,500 metre above sea level in Arunachal Pradesh," said Pande.
Pande said that in India, the Steppe Eagle was found in 27 protected areas (reserves, wild life sanctuaries and national parks). The analysis of distributional records shows that the species was found in a variety of habitats such as alpine meadows, alpine forest, cliffs in Himalayan zone, slopes with sparse vegetation, Gangetic plains, riverside habitat, desert, semiarid regions, grassland, tropical thorn forest, dry deciduous forest, edge forest, wetland, irrigated cultivation and urban fringes.
"It is interesting to note that the eagles congregated around garbage and carrion dumps in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Karnataka, indicating its habit as a scavenging raptor. It is evident from the records that the Steppe Eagles-- while migrating from their breeding grounds in the temperate regions to the subcontinent---bottle necked at various Himalayan valleys in Nepal (Annapurna, Kali Gandgki, Arun, Dudhkosi) and India (Kangra and, Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh) where they were reported in large numbers in passage," he added.
In India, the Steppe Eagle is at risk from electrocution as well as poisoning due to rodenticides because of its scavenging habit and frequenting garbage dumps. Importantly, during the Russian conference, researchers highlighted the alarming decrease in the populations of this once abundant raptor of the Palearctic region and demanded that the species be listed as a conservation concern.