NEW DELHI, INDIA, January 31, 2006: (HPI note: Though vultures are quite unpleasant in appearance, and have dining habits to match, they are environmentally important. They also figure benevolently in Hindu history from time to time. The vulture king Jatayu tried to save Sita from abduction in the Ramayana, and was injured in the process. Jatayu informed Rama who took Sita, leading eventually to her rescue. The vultures sudden approach to extinction has been a concern for over a decade.)
More than 90 percent of India’s vultures, a crucial link in the environment, have died and the government is working to ban a drug blamed for the near-extinction, officials said Tuesday. A. Raja, the minister for environment and forests, also said at an international conference on vultures that officials would soon begin a nationwide census of the birds to assess how many are left, the government’s Press Information Bureau reported. Over the past 15 years, millions of oriental white-backed, long-billed and slender-billed vultures in South Asia have died from eating cattle carcasses tainted by diclofenac, an anti-inflammatory and painkiller given to sick cows, experts say. Now a replacement drug harmless to vultures will eliminate the need for diclofenac.
Vultures play a vital role in disposing of carcasses and in the process help halt the spread of disease. Fewer vultures has meant more food for India’s large population of stray dogs, allowing them to thrive, which ”could lead to rise in incidence of rabies,” junior environment minister Namo Narain Meena said, calling for a complete ban on the veterinary use of the drug.