According to a study by economists Anant Sudarshan and Eyal G. Frank, there were ecological and socioeconomic effects of the vulture population drop in India. It is well-recognized that biodiversity loss may have far-reaching effects on ecosystems and human civilizations.

The 1990s crisis led to a significant drop in the Indian vulture population, which was eventually listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List in 2002. The vulture population in India saw an extraordinary collapse in the mid-1990s, with numbers for certain species falling as low as 99.9%, according to the researchers' working paper. Later, the widespread use of diclofenac, a veterinary drug that is harmful to vultures when consumed by cattle, was blamed for this decline.

Science.org stated on Monday, July 15, 2024, that recent research has shown that between 2000 and 2005, over 500,000 people perished as a consequence of disease-carrying germs spreading from an abundance of dead animals, which was produced owing to the near-extinction of vultures in India.

Conservation Efforts to Restore Vulture Population

The Indian vulture, or Gyps indicus, is a huge predatory bird that is a member of the Accipitridae family. Its body length is between 75 and 85 centimeters, while its wingspan measures between 1.96 and 2.38 meters. With black flying feathers and a bald, pale head, the plumage is mostly pale. The down covering the head and neck is scanty in comparison to other vulture species. Its hooked beak is designed to pull flesh off of dead animals. As scavengers, Indian vultures mostly consume the corpses of deceased animals. By getting rid of deceased animals, they contribute significantly to the ecology and stop the spread of illness.

The main habitat of Indian vultures is South Asia, which includes Pakistan, Nepal, and India. They can be found in some regions of Southeast Asia. They usually nest on cliffs and ruins, frequently in colonies, and they favor open environments like savannas, grasslands, and desert areas. During the breeding season, which typically lasts from November to March, one egg is deposited and raised by both parents.

vulture population
Image Source: Bird Count India

Diclofenac, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug that is very toxic to birds, is the reason the vultures began to die. They accidentally ate carcasses infected with diclofenac, which led to renal failure and potentially lethal visceral gout. In 2006, the Indian government outlawed the use of diclofenac. In India, vultures are essential to the environment because they effectively dispose of the hundreds of millions of carcasses left by cattle. Their departure created a sanitary catastrophe as untended decaying corpses contaminated water supplies and perhaps transmitted illness.

As quoted by science.org, Atheendar Venkataramani, a health economist at the University of Pennsylvania, said: "This will be a classic in the field. It's going to generate a lot of new science." Venkataramani was not involved with the study.

Additionally, the researchers discovered signs of elevated rabies incidence and wild dog populations in the impacted areas. Due to the availability of carrion that vultures had previously devoured, there are probably more dogs than there used to be, which increases the risk of rabies and human-dog conflicts.

The researchers analyzed medical records for over 600 regions, controlling for hospital count, weather, and water quality, and then overlaid vulture habitat maps on Indian administrative district maps to assess the impact of the same. According to the paper, before 1994, the average human death rate in each region investigated was around 0.9% per 1000 people. This baseline helped determine whether or not vultures were common in a certain district.

But by the end of 2005, the survey said, human mortality rates had increased 4.7% on average, or around 1,04,386 more fatalities annually, in locations that had historically been vulture hotspots. Additionally, the research revealed that the fatality rates in the areas that weren't the typical homes of vultures remained stable at 0.9%. The results have important ramifications for managing biodiversity and allocating resources for conservation. The study makes a strong case for preserving seemingly less fascinating species that are essential to ecosystem function by estimating the human cost of species extinction.

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