The population of vultures has declined due to the use of painkiller medicine given to animals, which caused kidney failure in vultures that consumed the treated animals. This medicine was banned in India in 2006.
The IUCN Red List in 2022 listed the endangered vulture species due to their rapidly declining population.
More than five lakh people died due to germs spreading infections from dead animals, which was linked to the disappearance of vultures according to a report published in Science.org.
Indian vultures are mainly found in South Asia, including India, Pakistan, and Nepal, and some areas in Southeast Asia.
Vultures are called “natural cleaners” because they eat meat quickly before it rots, and their stomach acid can destroy harmful substances found in dead animals.
Researchers Eval Do G Frank and Anant Sudarshan from Chicago University suggest that the Indian government take measures to destroy waste that releases toxic substances and spreads disease.
The study mentions that about $70 billion was spent in the public health sector in a year due to diseases spread by germs from dead animals.
Vultures are necessary to keep the environment clean by eating dead animals before they rot, preventing the spread of germs and deadly infections to humans. Their presence helps maintain a safe and clean environment.
The disappearance of vultures has led to an increase in the population of stray dogs, which eat dead animals and have increased the risk of rabies. Additionally, germs from dead animals are spreading more, causing deadly infections in humans.
The vulture population was four crore in 1990 and has now reduced to only 60,000.
Back in the day, vultures were the unsung heroes of the ecosystem. They’d scoop up dead animals, keeping things clean and stopping disease outbreaks. But then, humans introduced this drug called diclofenac for treating livestock. Sounds legit for cows and stuff, but it turned out to be a total disasRead more
Back in the day, vultures were the unsung heroes of the ecosystem. They’d scoop up dead animals, keeping things clean and stopping disease outbreaks. But then, humans introduced this drug called diclofenac for treating livestock. Sounds legit for cows and stuff, but it turned out to be a total disaster for our feathered friends.
When vultures fed on carcasses of animals treated with diclofenac, it caused fatal kidney failures—a condition we now call visceral gout. Basically, the drug messes up their system so badly that they literally drop dead. This crisis really hit hard in South Asia (think India, Pakistan, and Nepal) around the 1990s, slashing vulture numbers by crazy amounts.
Now, here’s the kicker: in 2006, India decided to flip the script and banned diclofenac for veterinary use. Instead, they pushed for safer alternatives like meloxicam, which don’t have the same toxic effects on vultures. But enforcing this ban has been a whole other struggle. Some folks still sneak in human versions of the drug for animals, so vultures are still getting hit with these dangerous substances.
And it doesn’t stop at just diclofenac. Other NSAIDs like aceclofenac and ketoprofen are also out there wreaking havoc on their health. With fewer vultures in the skies, nature’s cleanup crew is essentially getting ghosted—leading to an uptick in feral dogs and other scavengers that can spread diseases like rabies.
In short, the whole decline stems from this one drug turning a natural process into a public health crisis. It’s a wild mix of human error, enforcement struggles, and a cascade of ecological consequences. The story of the vultures is a major lesson on how one small change in how we handle livestock meds can ripple out and shake up an entire ecosystem.
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