Vultures of India

What are the words that first comes to your mind when you think of Vultures ?

Majestic, scary, predators, raptors, scavengers, monster birds, and so on.....

Are Vultures predators ? 🤔

Obviously not... Predators are the ones which hunts for food. But Vultures are not predators rather they are scavengers. They feed on dead and decaying flesh.

            Vultures play a vital role in the environment. These scavengers do the work of clearing the dead remains and helps to keep the ecosystem healthy and also prevents from spread of contagious disease. 

Relationship between Vultures and Indian Parsi Community 

            In India the people of Parsi or Zoroastrian community follow a unique funeral ritual. The Parsis do not cremate or bury human corpses, instead they leave them at a place called 'Tower of Silence' for the vultures to feed on. 

            They do so because they worship "Fire" and for them 🔥 is the symbol of purity. So they believe that cremating the dead is a sin.

            But unfortunately the declining count of vultures in India has affected their traditional practice.

Before knowing the reason for the fall in the count of vultures let us get to know some facts about vultures...

• The World holds 22 species of Vultures.
• India is home to 9 species of Vultures. Of these, 6 species are resident and 3 species are migratory. They are

1. Oriental White-backed Vulture
2. Slender-billed Vulture
3. Long-billed Vulture 
4. Egyptian Vulture 
5. Red-headed Vulture 
6. Bearded Vulture
7. Indian Griffon Vulture
8. Himalayan Vulture
9. Cinereous Vulture

( The first 6 species are resident and last 3 are migratory species)

• Until 1980's vultures were very common in India. At that time, it was reported that the population of 3 species (Oriental White-backed vulture, Long-billed vulture and Slender-billed vulture) was estimated at 40 million individuals. But now 99.9% of it's population is gone. 

As of now, in accord with the IUCN Red Data Book, Oriental White-backed vulture, Slender-billed vulture, Long-billed vulture and Red-headed vulture are listed as Critically Endangered.

Reason for fatality of Vultures 

            The core reason was Diclofenac. A veterinary drug called diclofenac was used as pain relief for farm animals. So when vultures feed on the carcasses of livestock that have been administered diclofenac they get poisoned. Though vultures have strong corrosive stomach acids, they do not have a particular enzyme which could break down this drug. The bioaccumulation of diclofenac in vultures causes renal failure, leading to death.

            Habitat loss of vultures, environmental contaminants, lack of food source(because the practice of throwing carcasses in the open environment has vanished, leading to less availability of food) and infectious diseases are some of the added reasons for the threat to vulture population in India.

Conservation Efforts 

• Vulture Care Centre (VCC) was set up at Pinjore, Haryana in 2001 to study the cause of deaths.
• Later on, in 2004, VCC was upgraded to Vulture Conservation and Breeding Centre (VCBC). At present, there are 9 VCBCs in India.
• Use of diclofenac for cattles was banned by the Government of India in 2008.(Diclofenac is very fatal for vultures. Even 1% of it in the carcass would kill the vulture)
• Meloxicam(anti-inflammatory drug) was suggested as alternative for diclofenac.

Vultures are slow-breeding birds and plays a crucial role in our environment. So it is high time that we must be more concerned about Vulture Conservation and prevent from it extinction.

Let us try to be responsible and grateful to nature.

                    __________❤__________