The return of a rare bird
14 Nov 2012 3:38 AM IST
If dead bodies had an afterlife they would rejoice at the news. The Indian vulture is not dropping dead anymore and it can soon take charge of the bodies after they are dumped ingloriously or left to rot on their own. According to a new study by the Bombay Natural History Society, after twenty years, the numbers of vultures in India are steady on a year-on-year basis and in fact got slightly better in the last count than the year prior to that.
Across India thousands of bodies lie uncared for, unclaimed and uncounted. And it’s the Indian vulture, the long-billed Gyps Indicus which would once take care of those bodies, both of the human and non-human kinds, cleaning the surrounding and helping to keep pollution from carcass-remains in check. But starting twenty years ago, they started to literally drop dead. The cause was identified as diclofenac, a painkilling drug most commonly administered to sick cattles. Experts had opined that vultures, which have ‘digestive system robust enough to digest disease-causing pathogens found in rotting meat of dead’, do not have a mechanism to break down diclofenac. So when they ate diclofenac-administered carcasses, in most cases it would lead to failure of the kidneys and inevitable death. The problem was so catastrophic that in two decades ninety-nine per cent of the vulture population in India was wiped out. Among them the Gyps Indicus was still visible but the two other variants, the white-backed vulture (Gyps Africanus) and the slender-billed vulture (Gyps Tenuirostris) were almost nowhere to be seen. The decline was so sharp and shocking that the International Union for the Conservation of Nature lost no time in labelling the vulture as a critically endangered species. But thanks to a ban on the use of diclofenac and general awareness, the key reason for the catastrophe has been arrested, though experts say that the ban needs to be more effectively implemented. Vulture breeding firms have also been established and they have shown encouraging results. But enclosed breeding alone could not have changed the scenario had not the natural proclivity of the vulture population could have been reversed.
Now that looks possible. Also, the return of the vultures will immensely help the Parsi community maintain the sanctity of the Tower of Silence whose functioning was heavily dependent on the vultures. The vanishing of vultures created a crisis in the community about the manageability of the dead left to rot at the Tower. Now, that will set to change. Clearly, not just the experts, but many parts and populations of India would want to see the return of the Indian vulture to where it belongs to the skies.
Across India thousands of bodies lie uncared for, unclaimed and uncounted. And it’s the Indian vulture, the long-billed Gyps Indicus which would once take care of those bodies, both of the human and non-human kinds, cleaning the surrounding and helping to keep pollution from carcass-remains in check. But starting twenty years ago, they started to literally drop dead. The cause was identified as diclofenac, a painkilling drug most commonly administered to sick cattles. Experts had opined that vultures, which have ‘digestive system robust enough to digest disease-causing pathogens found in rotting meat of dead’, do not have a mechanism to break down diclofenac. So when they ate diclofenac-administered carcasses, in most cases it would lead to failure of the kidneys and inevitable death. The problem was so catastrophic that in two decades ninety-nine per cent of the vulture population in India was wiped out. Among them the Gyps Indicus was still visible but the two other variants, the white-backed vulture (Gyps Africanus) and the slender-billed vulture (Gyps Tenuirostris) were almost nowhere to be seen. The decline was so sharp and shocking that the International Union for the Conservation of Nature lost no time in labelling the vulture as a critically endangered species. But thanks to a ban on the use of diclofenac and general awareness, the key reason for the catastrophe has been arrested, though experts say that the ban needs to be more effectively implemented. Vulture breeding firms have also been established and they have shown encouraging results. But enclosed breeding alone could not have changed the scenario had not the natural proclivity of the vulture population could have been reversed.
Now that looks possible. Also, the return of the vultures will immensely help the Parsi community maintain the sanctity of the Tower of Silence whose functioning was heavily dependent on the vultures. The vanishing of vultures created a crisis in the community about the manageability of the dead left to rot at the Tower. Now, that will set to change. Clearly, not just the experts, but many parts and populations of India would want to see the return of the Indian vulture to where it belongs to the skies.
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