NEW DELHI, July 23: The drastic decline in the vulture population is believed to have adversely affected the human health in the country due to contamination of waterways and other health-related problems.
According to a recent study, half a million humans may have died prematurely from 2000 to 2005 only as a result of the ecological calamity of absence of the vital scavengers cleaning up the environment. The public health crisis caused by the absence of these vital scavengers highlights the delicate balance that must exist between biodiversity and human health.
The study estimated the monetary damage from the related public health crisis at nearly $70 billion a year. These results suggest high returns for conserving keystone species such as vultures.
According to the study, vultures are a keystone species in India, essential to the functioning of many of the country’s ecosystems. The birds of prey don’t just clean up disease-ridden carcasses; by removing food, they reduce the populations of other scavengers, such as feral dogs that can transmit rabies. What’s more, without vultures, farmers dispose of their dead livestock in waterways, further spreading disease.
The study gave the reasons for drastic decline in the vulture population to some drugs used by farmers for their cattle in the 1990s’. In 1994, farmers began giving a drug called diclofenac to cattle and other livestock for pain, inflammation, and other conditions. But it was poisonous to the vultures that fed on these animals, destroying their kidneys. In just a decade, Indian vulture populations fell dramatically, from 50 million individuals to just a couple thousand.
(Manas Dasgupta)