The vanishing vulture

When we were children, vultures were a common sight but now they are seldom seen anywhere – so much so that some children recently asked, “What is a vulture?” when the mention of one came up - they had never seen or even heard of them!

In days gone by vultures - a scavenging bird of prey - were a common sight in open fields and places where the carcass of an animal lay. A vulture could never win a prize for beauty - it is not a pretty bird when on the ground though it is graceful in flight – like a hawk or eagle. A particular characteristic of some vultures – particularly those seen in this part of the world - is a bald head, devoid of normal feathers; they have a hooked beak and very powerful talons – and they are quite large in size, so they look intimidating.

According to information available, vultures in South Asia have declined dramatically since the early 1990s and this decline has been caused by residues of a veterinary drug found in animal carcasses. The governments of India and Nepal have taken late cognizance of this fact and banned the drug for animals – there is no information whether our government has followed suit. However even if steps are taken now it may take decades for vultures to come back to their earlier population level, if they ever do: without vultures to pick corpses clean, rabies-carrying dogs have multiplied, feeding on the carrion and age-old practices like the sky burials of the Parsees are coming to an end.

Conservationists need to get their act together and do something to preserve these useful birds who clean areas of rotting, animal cadavers. A recent study in 2016, reported that ‘of the twenty two different species of vulture, nine are critically endangered, three are endangered, four are near threatened and six are of least concern.’