- Vulture population decline in India linked to up to 500,000 premature human deaths between 2000-2005.
- Diclofenac, an anti-inflammatory drug used for cattle, decimated India's vulture population from 50 million to near extinction by the mid-1990s.
- Despite a 2006 ban on diclofenac, three vulture species in India still face long-term population losses of 91-98%.
A recent study observed a sharp decline in vulture populations in India caused a serious public health crisis, potentially leading to up to half a million premature human deaths between 2000 and 2005.
The absence of these essential scavengers underscores the crucial connection between biodiversity and human health. Vultures help manage disease by eating dead animals, preventing the spread of illnesses from other scavengers like feral dogs, which can carry rabies.
“Vultures are considered nature’s sanitation service because of the important role they play in removing dead animals that contain bacteria and pathogens from our environment - without them, disease can spread,” said Eyal Frank, study’s co-author.
Additionally, without vultures, farmers have had to dispose of dead livestock in waterways, worsening the spread of disease. By the mid-1990s, the vulture population had decreased from 50 million to nearly zero due to diclofenac, an anti-inflammatory drug used for cattle that was found fatal to vultures.
Birds that fed on carcasses of livestock treated with the drug suffered kidney failure and died. The research analyzed the health records from over 600 districts and compared them with maps of historical vulture habitats.
Their research considered factors like water quality and healthcare access to evaluate the health effects linked to the decline in vulture populations.
Since the 2006 ban on the drug, it has slowed the decline in some areas. However, according to the latest State of India’s Birds report, three species, the white-rumped vulture, the Indian vulture, and the red-headed vulture have still experienced long-term losses of 91-98%.
Edited by Harshajit Sarmah
