Collapse of Natural Carcass Disposal System …
39
vultures often feed on human faeces, which provide an important service in villages
that usually lack a sewage system, thus eliminating potentially hazardous organic
remains efficiently.
But in their absence, as cattle owners are burdened monetarily to bury or burn the
dead animals, they prefer to simply dispose them into rivers which contaminate the
water. Bone collectors are also affected as they depend on vulture-cleaned carcasses
for their livelihood. Parsi community in India is facing problems from population
reduction of vultures as they are inevitable for disposal of their dead bodies which
are placed on a Tower of Silence where according to their beliefs vultures liberate the
soul by consuming the body. Now, declining vulture population forced Parsis to drop
these ancient customs for reasons of hygiene as bodies take normally six months to
disappear.
Vultures play a critical role in our ecosystem. Their disappearance causes abnormal changes in the natural food chain where population of scavengers like rats, feral
dogs and even leopards increases sometimes which invades inhabited areas preying
on feral dogs which ultimately leads to conflict with humans. This would increase
the incidence of life-threatening diseases such as rabies and plague and are indirectly
responsible for thousands of human deaths (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_
wars_and_anthropogenic_disasters_by_death_toll) every year. So, decrease of vultures also imposes huge expenses on the government including medical care to treat
animal bites, the sterilization and vaccination of animals along with the problem of
managing the population of disease carriers. Most importantly, these less-efficient
scavengers pile up the dumped carcasses which along with human negligence and
incapability result in the unprecedented incident under consideration.
4.1.2 Decline and Threats to the Survival of Vultures in India
In 1998, observations and counts of vultures at Keoladeo National Park, Bharatpur,
indicated a decline (wiienvis.nic.in/Database/SRP_8555.aspx for Species Recovery Programme; https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2016) in numbers
of vultures for the first time. In 1999, a sharp decline in number of vultures was
identified in India, Pakistan and Nepal. Reasons were numerous with focus on food
shortage, poisoning, use of pesticides, disease or other factors. But after elaborate
study on possible viral causes of the decline, the culprit was discovered by Dr. Lindsay
Oaks (Oaks et al. 2004) and his team in 2003 as diclofenac (C 14 H 11 Cl 2 NO 2 ) (Indian
Pharmacopoeia 2012) which is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) normally administered to livestock in the form of constituents of almost all gels, creams
and sprays which are used to treat the symptoms of inflammation, muscle pain along
with fevers to keep them working for long time. Similar research by Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) confirmed that widespread use of diclofenac as pain
reliever in cattle is the cause of vulture’s mortality in India. Vultures die from kidney
failure within days of exposure to diclofenac-contaminated tissues of dead animals
where post-mortem findings of extensive visceral gout confirmed huge uric acid
39
vultures often feed on human faeces, which provide an important service in villages
that usually lack a sewage system, thus eliminating potentially hazardous organic
remains efficiently.
But in their absence, as cattle owners are burdened monetarily to bury or burn the
dead animals, they prefer to simply dispose them into rivers which contaminate the
water. Bone collectors are also affected as they depend on vulture-cleaned carcasses
for their livelihood. Parsi community in India is facing problems from population
reduction of vultures as they are inevitable for disposal of their dead bodies which
are placed on a Tower of Silence where according to their beliefs vultures liberate the
soul by consuming the body. Now, declining vulture population forced Parsis to drop
these ancient customs for reasons of hygiene as bodies take normally six months to
disappear.
Vultures play a critical role in our ecosystem. Their disappearance causes abnormal changes in the natural food chain where population of scavengers like rats, feral
dogs and even leopards increases sometimes which invades inhabited areas preying
on feral dogs which ultimately leads to conflict with humans. This would increase
the incidence of life-threatening diseases such as rabies and plague and are indirectly
responsible for thousands of human deaths (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_
wars_and_anthropogenic_disasters_by_death_toll) every year. So, decrease of vultures also imposes huge expenses on the government including medical care to treat
animal bites, the sterilization and vaccination of animals along with the problem of
managing the population of disease carriers. Most importantly, these less-efficient
scavengers pile up the dumped carcasses which along with human negligence and
incapability result in the unprecedented incident under consideration.
4.1.2 Decline and Threats to the Survival of Vultures in India
In 1998, observations and counts of vultures at Keoladeo National Park, Bharatpur,
indicated a decline (wiienvis.nic.in/Database/SRP_8555.aspx for Species Recovery Programme; https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2016) in numbers
of vultures for the first time. In 1999, a sharp decline in number of vultures was
identified in India, Pakistan and Nepal. Reasons were numerous with focus on food
shortage, poisoning, use of pesticides, disease or other factors. But after elaborate
study on possible viral causes of the decline, the culprit was discovered by Dr. Lindsay
Oaks (Oaks et al. 2004) and his team in 2003 as diclofenac (C 14 H 11 Cl 2 NO 2 ) (Indian
Pharmacopoeia 2012) which is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) normally administered to livestock in the form of constituents of almost all gels, creams
and sprays which are used to treat the symptoms of inflammation, muscle pain along
with fevers to keep them working for long time. Similar research by Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) confirmed that widespread use of diclofenac as pain
reliever in cattle is the cause of vulture’s mortality in India. Vultures die from kidney
failure within days of exposure to diclofenac-contaminated tissues of dead animals
where post-mortem findings of extensive visceral gout confirmed huge uric acid