36
S. Bhattacharyya et al.
with effective conservation policies of natural scavengers to maintain biodiversity
and mass awareness can only stop this ugly practice recovering human health and
social as well as environmental balance.
Keywords Vulture · Mutual relation · Biodiversity · Diclofenac · Carcass disposal
system · Rotten meat · Kolkata · Lacuna · Greedy
1 Introduction
Managing dead animals in livestock and poultry growing situations is a great challenge. Throwing them openly or in a ditch is not legal and acceptable. Today’s
ecological survey demands proper methods for disposal of dead animals where role
of vultures (Koenig 2006), who feed on them and thereby perform the important task
of nature by scavenging, is very important so far as environment cleanliness is concerned. Incidentally, these vultures, once the most abundant birds across the world
including Indian subcontinent, are now considered to be one of the highly threatened
species (Markandya et al. 2008). Numerous reasons are lying behind whose identification and preservation in the mutualistic relationship (Gangoso 2013) with human
could be critical from the conservational perspective. Moreover, this disappearance
and failure of proper supervision of civic authorities (Ali 2016) to the timely disposal
of dumped carcasses encouraged a class of people to initiate a profitable business
of supplying these dead animals’ meat from dumping yards surrounding Kolkata to
several food outlets across the city and in neighbouring states and countries. This
redefines the human-vulture correlation in the present socio-economic context.
2 Objective of the Study
The present study discusses on human-vulture mutualism (Gangoso 2013) where
humans provide food resources facilitating the maintenance of the dense population
of the rare scavenger vulture, whereas the regulatory services are provided by vultures
in return, cleaning up human faeces, wastes and most importantly carrions both
in villages and cities. So, the decline in their population and existing inadequate
infrastructures (Ali 2016) of the municipalities of Kolkata and its neighbourhood to
dispose carcasses transforms this mutualism where the dumped carcasses formerly
eaten by vultures are now served as palatable meat dishes in various eateries in
the states of West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar and countries like Nepal, Bangladesh. It
is reported (The Times of India 2018) recently that a section of municipal staff
allegedly conspired with some common needy people to develop and run this rotten
meat industry successfully over a decade violating all ethics of humanity beyond
imagination. The present study is an attempt to unveil the facts behind this unfortunate
incident.
S. Bhattacharyya et al.
with effective conservation policies of natural scavengers to maintain biodiversity
and mass awareness can only stop this ugly practice recovering human health and
social as well as environmental balance.
Keywords Vulture · Mutual relation · Biodiversity · Diclofenac · Carcass disposal
system · Rotten meat · Kolkata · Lacuna · Greedy
1 Introduction
Managing dead animals in livestock and poultry growing situations is a great challenge. Throwing them openly or in a ditch is not legal and acceptable. Today’s
ecological survey demands proper methods for disposal of dead animals where role
of vultures (Koenig 2006), who feed on them and thereby perform the important task
of nature by scavenging, is very important so far as environment cleanliness is concerned. Incidentally, these vultures, once the most abundant birds across the world
including Indian subcontinent, are now considered to be one of the highly threatened
species (Markandya et al. 2008). Numerous reasons are lying behind whose identification and preservation in the mutualistic relationship (Gangoso 2013) with human
could be critical from the conservational perspective. Moreover, this disappearance
and failure of proper supervision of civic authorities (Ali 2016) to the timely disposal
of dumped carcasses encouraged a class of people to initiate a profitable business
of supplying these dead animals’ meat from dumping yards surrounding Kolkata to
several food outlets across the city and in neighbouring states and countries. This
redefines the human-vulture correlation in the present socio-economic context.
2 Objective of the Study
The present study discusses on human-vulture mutualism (Gangoso 2013) where
humans provide food resources facilitating the maintenance of the dense population
of the rare scavenger vulture, whereas the regulatory services are provided by vultures
in return, cleaning up human faeces, wastes and most importantly carrions both
in villages and cities. So, the decline in their population and existing inadequate
infrastructures (Ali 2016) of the municipalities of Kolkata and its neighbourhood to
dispose carcasses transforms this mutualism where the dumped carcasses formerly
eaten by vultures are now served as palatable meat dishes in various eateries in
the states of West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar and countries like Nepal, Bangladesh. It
is reported (The Times of India 2018) recently that a section of municipal staff
allegedly conspired with some common needy people to develop and run this rotten
meat industry successfully over a decade violating all ethics of humanity beyond
imagination. The present study is an attempt to unveil the facts behind this unfortunate
incident.