Indian vulture crisis facts for kids

The white-rumped vulture, one of the species devastated in the crisis

A flock of endangered White-rumped and Indian vultures

Imagine a world where nature's clean-up crew, the vultures, suddenly disappeared. That's almost what happened in India! Nine types of vultures live there, but most are now in danger of extinction. This happened because their numbers dropped very quickly. In the early 1980s, there were about 40 million Gyps vultures in South Asia. By 2017, this number had fallen to only 19,000!

This huge loss of over 99% of all vultures is called the Indian vulture crisis. It's the fastest decline of any animal known in that time. Scientists believe a big reason for this was a medicine called diclofenac. This drug was often given to farm animals like cows to help with pain. When vultures ate the bodies of these animals after they died, the diclofenac poisoned them. It caused their kidneys to fail. Even a tiny amount of the drug in just a few dead animals could cause a huge drop in vulture numbers.

Without vultures, many dead animal bodies were left to rot, spreading harmful germs and attracting lots of pests like rats. The loss of vultures also led to a big increase in the number of wild dogs. These dogs often carry rabies, a very dangerous disease. The wild dog population in India grew by at least 5 million. This led to many more dog bites and thousands of extra deaths from rabies.

To help the vultures, India banned the use of diclofenac for animals in 2006. A safer medicine called Meloxicam was suggested as a replacement. It doesn't harm vultures. Also, different groups have started projects to help the vulture population recover. Thanks to strict bans on harmful drugs in India, Pakistan, and Nepal, the number of vultures is slowly starting to grow again.

How Vultures Lived in India

Vultures in India often live near people and depend on human activities. Many people in India follow Hinduism, a religion that respects cows as sacred. Because of this, cow meat is usually not eaten. This means that when cows die, their bodies are often left for vultures to eat. Vultures were like nature's clean-up system, eating dead animals. In the city of New Delhi, nearly 15,000 vultures were once seen at places where dead animals were left.

When Vulture Numbers Started to Drop

People started noticing fewer vultures in the 1990s. A scientist named Vibhu Prakash from the Bombay Natural History Society saw this at Keoladeo National Park. Parsis in Mumbai also noticed fewer birds at their Towers of Silence. Villagers in northern India saw the decline in the mid-1990s.

As the number of vultures dropped faster, scientists from around the world tried to find out why. It was hard to study because it was illegal to kill vultures for science in India. Also, it was hard to find freshly dead vultures to examine, especially in India's very hot weather. In 2002, a magazine called National Geographic reported that scientists weren't sure why 95% of the vultures had disappeared. One scientist, Andrew Cunningham, thought it might be a new type of poison.

What Caused the Vulture Crisis?

In 2003, after a lot of research, scientists led by Dr. Lindsay Oaks found the answer: diclofenac. This medicine is an anti-inflammatory drug that helps with pain, fever, and swelling in animals. It became very popular in India in the 1990s.

But diclofenac is deadly for vultures. A vulture can die if it eats even a small amount of the drug from the body of an animal that was recently treated with it. Studies showed that if only 1% of dead animals had diclofenac in them, vulture populations could drop by 60% to 90% each year. Sadly, about 10% of the dead animals found actually had the drug.

The types of vultures most affected were the Gyps vultures. The number of white-rumped vultures dropped by 99.7% between 1993 and 2002. The Indian and slender-billed vultures also dropped by 97.4%. White-rumped vultures were even more sensitive to diclofenac than the others. All three were in danger of disappearing forever. Other types of Gyps vultures, like the Himalayan vulture and Eurasian griffon, were not as affected. This was because they either only visited India in winter or lived in mountains away from farms.

What Happened Because Vultures Disappeared?

Vultures used to clean up dead animals, which helped stop pollution and the spread of diseases. They also kept down the numbers of other animals that eat dead things, like dogs and rats. When vultures suddenly disappeared, it caused many problems for public health.

A vulture's body can safely get rid of harmful germs from dead animals. But dogs and rats can carry these germs and spread them. Without vultures, many dead animals were left to rot in fields. This created places for germs to grow and for rats to multiply. These germs could then get into water sources.

The diseases carried by rats and dogs from rotting bodies caused thousands of human deaths. The number of wild dogs in India grew by at least 5 million. This led to over 38 million more dog bites and more than 47,000 extra deaths from rabies. This cost a lot of money, about $34 billion. It's estimated that human deaths increased by more than 4% between 2000 and 2005, when vulture numbers were at their lowest.

What Was Done to Help?

Diclofenac available in 2009

Rules About Diclofenac

After scientists found out about diclofenac, India banned its use for animals on March 11, 2006. Nepal and Pakistan quickly followed, and Bangladesh banned it in 2010. A safe replacement medicine, Meloxicam, was quickly found. Meloxicam is another pain medicine that doesn't harm vultures. Drug companies were encouraged to make more meloxicam and sell it at a lower price, similar to diclofenac. In 2015, India's government also ordered that diclofenac vials (small bottles) for human use be made smaller. This was to stop people from using them illegally for animals.

However, some other drugs that were suggested as alternatives, like aceclofenac, ketoprofen, and nimesulide, were also found to be harmful to vultures. Even after the ban, diclofenac meant for humans was still being sold illegally for animals. While the ban has worked well in Nepal and Bangladesh, diclofenac is still sometimes available in India. In 2021, another safe alternative called tolfenamic acid was found.

Sadly, diclofenac is still allowed for animals in some other countries, including many in Europe. For example, in Spain, where about 90% of Europe's vultures live, diclofenac was approved for animal use in 2013. This is concerning because studies show it could still harm vultures there.

Even with the ban in India, some vultures still die from diclofenac poisoning. But there are signs that the ban has helped slow down the decline of their numbers.

Helping Vultures Recover

Programs to breed Indian vultures in captivity have started. Vultures live a long time and don't have many babies, and they are hard to breed in zoos. So, these programs will take a while. The plan is to release the captive-bred birds back into the wild once the environment is safe from diclofenac.

In 2002, the Parsi community asked for help with vulture breeding. In 2014, a program called Saving Asia's Vultures from Extinction announced plans to release captive-bred birds by 2016. In 2016, the Jatayu Conservation Breeding Centre in Pinjore released captive-bred vultures. This was the first time captive-bred vultures were released in Asia. More breeding centers have been set up in other Indian states.

In 2020, the Indian government launched a Vulture Action Plan for 2020–2025. This plan aims to do more to protect vultures and make sure other harmful drugs for animals are also banned.

See also

• African vulture crisis
• Critically Endangered