It’s the bird most commonly associated with death. Once a common sight in South Asia, the vulture, or nature’s scavenger, is one of the 78 species in India that is dying out. Faced with a mysterious virus and pesticide poisoning, the population of vultures today is said to be just 5 per cent of what it was (about 20 years ago) in the 1980s. A couple of years ago, the vultures of Keoladeo National Park in Bharatpur numbered 2000. Now there are just four. Help is at hand in one corner of Pinjore, near Chandigarh. In the 1800 acre reserve forest that forms the official hunting grounds of the former Maharaja of Patiala, scientists will soon set up an international captive breeding centre for vultures. The centre will aim to rear healthy, virus-free birds and then release them into the wild. But why are these clumsy-looking birds so important? Vultures are scavengers. That is, they eat the meat of dead animals. They are central to the cycle of life and death. By consuming the dead, they make way for the living. Which is probably why in every culture across the world, vultures are respected. For once, the near-extinction of a […]
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