As the vultures in the Indian sky are missing, the Parsi people living in the country are worried, of course, for a religious reason. The Parsis, who fled Persia—the present-day Iran—centuries back after Islamic uprising practise the religion of Zoroastrianism. According to their religious practice, the dead bodies cannot be buried or burnt because the corpses could pollute the Panchabhootam (earth, water, air, ether and fire). Hence, their bodies are left in a high-rise ‘Tower of Silence’ to be consumed by the scavengers. “Unfortunately the vultures have disappeared from our region and a sustained breeding project for vultures has become essential,” said Khojeste P. Mistree of the World Alliance of Parsi and Irani Zoroastrians. Nearly 100,000 Parsi people live in major Indian cities like Mumbai, Hyderabad and Kolkata and they have made India their permanent homeland.
Speaking to this writer, Mistree also added, “The vulture happens to have been the first scavenger of the world and hence they should be brought back for a sustained ecological balance.” If not for the Parsis, the government and non-government agencies and organisations in India have come forward to bring back the scavenging birds surely for the ecological cause. The vulture eat the carcasses of livestock and wildlife (and normally does not hunt living animals). The scavenging birds that way help in keeping the environment clean. Unlike the dog or the crow, the vulture eats the flesh of carcasses completely and cleanly. The birds thus prevent the spreading of some severe diseases like rabies and anthrax among the wildlife, livestock and also the human beings.
The scientists and environmentalists apprehend that after Pakistan and Nepal the vulture population in India has declined by more than 97 per cent in the last few years. In India, there were about 40 million vultures in early eighties, but a survey conducted by Mumbai Natural History Society in 2007 revealed that there remained nearly 11,000 white-backed vultures, 1000
slender-billed vultures and 44,000 long-billed vultures in the country, said Dr Vibhu Prakash, the principal scientist for the
vulture conservation breeding programme at BNHS, Mumbai. Statistics reveal that India has nine species of vultures in the wild including the oriental white-backed vulture, long-billed vulture, slender-billed vulture, egyptian vulture, red-headed vulture, Indian griffon vulture, Himalayan griffon, cinereous vulture and bearded vulture.
Moreover, they are listed as Schedule I species in the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, which is applicable to the tiger and one-horned rhino also. Rapid urbanisation, destruction of habitat (primarily the loss of high-rise trees, where the vultures go for nesting) and many other modern day factors (like the rampant use of pesticides—DDT, hitting aircraft, other moving objects in the sky, electric lines and even poisoning of vultures in some cases) have caused the decline of vulture population in South and Southeast Asia. A matured vulture may weigh up to 10 kgs and it needs almost half-a-kg meat everyday. And the most common theory emerges from here that vultures die of eating toxic meat with high percentage of diclofenac residue. It may be mentioned that diclofenac is a commonly used veterinary drug.
Dr Prakash highlighted that considering the fast declination of vultures and also the availability of diclofenac in the markets, the conservation breeding programme appears to be the only way of saving the species. “By bringing some vultures in captivity, the life of these vultures is saved and once they start breeding, they would augment their population. The vultures will be released back in the wild once we are sure that there is no diclofenac available in system,” he narrated.
The century old BNHS, which is recognised as one of the most reputed wildlife research organisation in South Asia, has already taken initiatives for the captive breeding programmes. With the permission from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (GoI) and supports from a number of international funding organisations like Royal Society for the Protection of Birds(UK), Zoological Society of London, Peregrine Fund(US), the BNHS runs three vulture conservation breeding centres at Pinjore of Haryana, Rajabhatkhawa of West Bengal and Rani of Assam. But many do not subscribe the theory of captive breeding of vultures. Dr. Anil Kumar Chhangani, a wildlife expert from Department of Zoology, JNV University, Jodhpur, also expressed skepticism at the process of vulture captive breeding as there was no such expertise among Indian organisations. He cautioned, “Authorities must plan well while selecting the breeding stock for captive breeding. Birds most suitable for the purpose should be selected, rather than unsystematically and unscientifically collecting chicks from their natural habitat, disturbing natural breeding.” Anil, who was associated with IUCN Birds and Mammals Breeding Specialist Group reiterated, “The captive breeding should not be the only way to conserve vultures. Rather a countrywide rescue programme for the vultures should be encouraged.”
Similarly, Soumyadeep Datta, an environmental activist of Assam argues that the captive breeding of vultures would result nothing. “The matured vultures select their partners in the wild for breeding and the birds lay eggs in such a situation, which cannot be arranged in the captivity. Only one egg is expected from a pair in one season. The caring mother continues its close bond with the baby till the chick attains maturity by five years. For any reason, vultures do not go for mating with other species,” analyzed Datta, who serves as the director of Nature’s Beckon, a Northeast based environmental NGO.
Datta, while talking to this writer also asserted that the indiscriminate lifting of chicks, as done by the BNHS people in Assam, from the nests would only disrupt the male-female ratio of the vultures. He also claims that unlike the other parts of India, the population of white-backed vulture and long-billed vultures have been stable if not increased in the State. The natural breeding process of vultures is continuing in Assam, he claimed. Even many Mumbai Parsis initially planned for a scheme to breed vultures in the captivity. However, Minal Shroff, the chairman of the Bombay Parsee Panchayat, which runs the Tower of Silence, admitted that scientists studying the proposal shelved it, saying ‘it will not be possible since vultures appear to be particularly susceptible to diclofenac’.
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