Life

India's Disappearing Vultures

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Millions of long-billed, slender-billed and oriental white-backed vultures have died in India after eating cattle carcasses tainted with diclofenac, an anti-inflammatory and painkiller given to sick cows.

Vultures play a vital role in disposing of carcasses, keeping down populations of stray dogs and rats that also feed on dead cattle and can spread disease among humans. But India’s government has refused to ban diclofenac until a viable alternative is found, because cattle are crucial to the country’s rural economy.

Tens of millions of vultures played a key role in South Asian ecosystems before the introduction of diclofenac in the early 1990s. Now, populations of the three species are thought to have dropped by as much as 97 percent, according to Britain’s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

The World Conservation Union, which calls itself the world’s largest conservation network, has listed the three vulture species as critically endangered, the category applied to animals closest to extinction. One carcass with diclofenac is enough to kill 50 vultures.

Vulture deaths also threaten the customs of India’s ancient Zoroastrian community, which uses vultures to dispose of their dead. Zoroastrians consider the earth and fire too sacred to use for either burial or cremation, and traditionally leave their dead atop towers, to be consumed by vultures.

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