Vultures: The Custodians of Nature We Love to Loathe

A vulture in the human sense is someone who preys on the weak, a mean person, opportunistic, greedy, in short, nothing that says good vibes. Vultures are often associated with dark human nature. Talk about bad publicity! It is safe to say that we know so little about these birds who should be widely known as the Guardians of Nature, nature’s cleaning crew.

Vulture Did-You-Know

Vultures are birds of prey. They differ from other birds of prey as they do not hunt. Vultures, almost exclusively, feed on carrion or animal carcasses. The voracious feeders that they are, a wake (collective noun for vultures feeding on a carcass) of vultures can clean out a carcass in about half an hour, each eating up to 2.5kg of meat. This effective clean-up of otherwise decomposing carcasses reduces the chances of harmful diseases spreading in our environment.

Know Your Vultures

Worldwide, there are 23 species of vultures, divided into two parts—Old World vulture (16 species from Africa, Asia, and Europe) and New World vulture (seven species from North and South America). Fun Fact: There are no vultures in Antarctica and Australia.

Out of the 23 species, nine are in India. They are the long-billed vulture or the Indian vulture, slender-billed vulture, white-rumped vulture, Himalayan griffon, Eurasian griffon, red-headed vulture, cinereous vulture, Egyptian vulture or the Pharaoh's Chicken, and bearded vulture or the lammergeier. Out of these nine, long-billed, slender-billed, and white-rumped are endemic to the Indian subcontinent and are also the worst hit species (Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List).

What Went Wrong

It was the beginning of 1990 when the wonder drug, Diclofenac, was introduced as two formulations—human and veterinary. The cheap and fast-effective nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug began to be widely used for veterinary purposes, so much so that its street name became Hare patte wali goli (green-strip pills). Easily available in nukkad kirana (street-side) stores, Diclofenac was the one-stop shop for treating fever, pain, and swelling in animals. Also, note that it was around this time only that the vulture population all of a sudden crashed.

When a sick animal is administered Diclofenac, it stays in its body for 72 hours, after which it gets expelled from the body in the form of urinary and excretory waste. But when an animal dies within that 72-hour window, the drug stays. Sadly, India does not have an effective carcass disposal system, due to which most of the time carcasses are discarded outside the periphery of human settlement. When the vultures feed on the carrion laced with Diclofenac, it kills them in a matter of a few days. Diclofenac is nephrotoxic to vultures due to which it suffers from acute renal failure, resulting in dehydration, uric acid contamination, visceral gout, and finally a slow painful death. Studies have shown that the presence of Diclofenac, as low as 0.01-0.02mg per kilogram, is highly toxic for vultures.

Recovery Efforts

In the early days when it was not certain that Diclofenac was causing the crash in the vulture population, the decline did baffle researchers. Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), during their regular bird count, had noticed the rapid decline in the bird population. Meanwhile, in Pakistan, The Peregrine Fund, the organization that was working towards vulture breeding, soon found out that after being fed carcasses of dead cattle, all the birds were dying. Repeated experiments and studies all led to Diclofenac. Thus, with the help of international scientific communities, noticing that there was up to 97% decline in the vulture population, South Asian Vulture Recovery Plan was introduced in 2003-2004, and by 2006, the veterinary formulation of Diclofenac was banned. But due to the failure in the implementation of important rules and regulations regarding the availability of the human formulation of the drug, it became the next best solution for sick cattle. It had the same effect on the vultures.

Studies showed that the drug Meloxicam could be used instead of Diclofenac as it had the same effect on animals, and it was identified as a drug safe for vultures.

Impact of Declining Vulture Population on the Environment and Culture

Due to the decline in the vulture population, there is an excess of food available for feral dogs, rats, mice, and other scavengers. Plenty of food leads to more breeding. After feeding, vultures move to their natural habitats, such as wooded areas and cliffs, and they have strong digestive juice that destroys harmful bacteria and other infections. The feral dogs and other scavengers, however, live around human settlements and contaminate our living space. Plenty of zoonotic diseases get spread from this animal-human interaction. Ever since the vulture population crashed, these cases have risen exponentially.

The decline of the vulture population in the Indian subcontinent was greatly felt by the Parsi and the Tibetan Buddhist communities. The burial tradition of these two communities depended mainly on vultures. Due to the birds’ declining population, the Parsi dakhmas or the Tower of Silence hold corpses for a longer period as compared to a quick sky burial with the help of vultures. This forced the community to accept alternate practices to dispose of a corpse. Similarly, the Tibetan Buddhists too follow sky burial. In the long run, the absence of these birds will lead to changes in culture and tradition.

How Can You Help

As of now, the complete ban on the production and usage of Diclofenac for veterinary purposes, and to conserve vulture habitats are the only two immediate things a common man can do. Strong conservation policies and strict implementation of laws are required. It’s not that there are no laws towards vulture conservation, there is a lack of implementation. Vulture falls under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act. This Schedule protects the endangered species from poaching, killing, and trading by making the violators liable to the harshest penalties. At present, there are less than 1 lakh vultures in India. Public awareness to protect these birds and their habitat is the need of the hour.

Strict rules and a total ban on the veterinary formulation of Diclofenac only will improve the situation. In theory, there should have been 80-90% less production of Diclofenac since the ban in 2008, and the resolution to allow the use of Diclofenac as a single-dose injection for humans only (July 2015). But illegal manufacturing, distribution, and use of Diclofenac continue. If you think it took a lot of effort to conserve tigers, it is safe to assume that it will be a Herculean task to conserve vultures.

(This story was previously published in indiatimes.com. I, the writer, have all rights to this story)