With the joint initiative of Bird Conservation Nepal and Nepal Veterinary Association-Chitwan Chapter, a technical seminar on "Vulture Conservation in Nepal" was organized at Hotel Island Jungle Resort, Bharatpur-10 on February 2, 2009. The event was participated by 58 recorded participants majority of who were veterinary doctors of Chitwan district, team of BCN, press and local TV channel crews, and dignitaries from the administration and conservation offices in Chitwan. The program started at 5 Pm sharp, and was preceded by four technical presentations and discussion.

The Technical Seminar was chaired by Dr. B.N Devkota, Pesident NVACC and the program was conducted by Dr K. Kaphle. The event saw the participation of Ratnaraj Pandey, Chief District Officer, Chitwan, as a chief guest. Dr. S. Bhattrai (Vice President-Nepal Veterinary Council), Dr. S. Singh (Gen Sec. Nepal Veterinary Association), Dr. I.P Dhakal (Campus Chief-IAAS, Rampur), Dr. S. K Sha (Director, Veterinary Teaching Hospital), KN Poudel (Chief NTNC, Sauraha), Dr B K Shrestha (Chief DLSO, Bharatpur) were the guests in the formal opening and Dr. Richard Cuthbert from RSPB/UK was a special guest. The team of Dr. S. Bhattrai (VP-NVC), Dr. S. Singh (Gen Sec NVA), Dr. I.P Dhakal (CC-IAAS, Rampur), Dr. S. K Sha (Director, VTH), KN Poudel (Chief NTNC, Saurah), Dr B K Shrestha (Chief DLSO, Bharatpur) served as the expert panel for the technical seminar, chaired by KN Poudel (Chief NTNC, Saurah), and moderated by Dr. S. Singh (Gen Sec NVA).

The need for scientific veterinary education was highlighted by Dr. IP Dhakal in his welcome speech and after a round of introduction among the participants the technical seminar began.

Anand Chaudhary Vulture Conservation Officer BCN gave a talk on the topic "Vulture Conservation Activities in Nepal". He gave the brief history of BCN and insights on its activities in Nepal. It was a nice narration sounded by strong field experience based justifications.

Dr Kamal Ghaire, the noted international scientist in the wild life represented the chitwan chapter in the technical presentation. His talk "Vulture Conservation in Nepal" gave scientific and personal experiences in the sad state of vulture population decline, the possible causes and measures adopted to halt the decline. His experience as a wild life veterinarian at Chitwan national park and long involvement with vulture conservation activities was both educative and inspiring.

Dr. Surya Paudel Veterinary Officer BCN presented on "Driven to extinction by drugs?" He highlighted on the encouraging trend in the replacement of diclofenac use with meloxicam at VTH and findings of the NSAID monitoring by BCN at western terai. He also narrated how the further work of BCN in this direction is heading and appealed to fellow vets to assist in the vulture conservation effort. The threat that still looms with insistence on use of diclofenac and illegal use by those not authorized and from human drug source was something that needed immediate curb.

Dr. Richard Cuthbert gave an expert lecture on "Role of Veterinary professionals in the decline and recovery of vultures in Asia". It was a scientific paper of high grade both in the content and the delivery terms. The audience most of whom were veterinarians found it interesting on the investigation profile of the diclofenac narrowing as the causative culprit for vulture population decline. The series of research undertaken and their findings, the differential diagnosis and the causative agent narrowing focus all support that diclofenac used as NSAID in livestock contributes to the decline in the vulture population. Now the message would not have been better delivered and to a better audience as we had at this seminar and I personally see it as a huge awareness and motivation on the part of veterinarians. The event was covered by local newspapers and local TV channels with wide clips of the session broadcasted at the evening.