ahmedabad cantonment atira campus iima campus mg science college shahibaugh have the biggest vulture colony in the city the monitoring under the provisional vulture safe zones pvsz has revealed that in the urban areas in ahmedabad and kadi the nesting sites were near the residential colonieskartik shastri trustee of jivdaya trust and aditya roy scientific advisor said that during the nest monitoring a very important feature had been noticed which was common in all the colonies the selection of nesting sites near human habitation and village ponds was found more in rural areas except for ahmedabad and kadi all the nests recorded in pvsz in central gujarat were near village ponds primarily on large old trees we also found vultures dependence on these shallow village ponds for bathing and sunning activities and drinking water was more it is important to note that these ponds are fast vanishing with development said shastri vultures were found to have shunned those places where diggings of deep ponds with jcb machines had taken place shastri and roy said that it is very crucial to protect the existing colonies of vultures and possible nesting locations under wildlife protection act to protect the existing nesting sites and potential nesting locations are challenging tasks as wildlife protection act might not be sufficient another challenge faced by the vulture population is the use of organophosphates chemical for killing blue bulls and feral pigs since blue bulls and feral pigs cause heavy crop damage farmers spray organophosphates on crops for killing them after the death of blue bulls and feral pigs by the chemical when vultures feed on their carcasses they get killed by the residuals of the chemical explained roy that apart blue bulls killed in road accidents can not be left to be fed by vultures as they have to be buried in the presence of forest officials as per wildlife act 1972 this again deprives vultures of their natural food said roy