- PINJORE, India (Reuters)
- A decade ago, vultures were almost as common as sparrows in India.
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- Their screeching, as they ripped into animal carcasses,
could be heard in cities across the vast South Asian country.
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- But a mystery virus has changed that and, one expert
says, threatens to push the gawky black birds to the brink of extinction.
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- In 10 years, India has lost more than 95 percent of its
vulture population.
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- "Their decline has been truly dramatic. At one time,
there were tens of thousands of vultures in India," Vibhu Prakash,
a specialist in birds of prey at the Bombay Natural History Society, told
Reuters.
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- "Today, they are a threatened species. They are
down to just a few thousands which is very unusual because vultures are
very hardy creatures who can live on petrified carcasses."
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- Vultures, while they may be low in the pecking order
as far as beauty is concerned, are considered sacred by many in the world's
second most populous nation.
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- The dramatic drop in the population has created a crisis
for the country's Parsi community, which leaves its dead in stone towers
to be eaten by vultures because its religion forbids burial and cremation.
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- Parsis or Zoroastrians regard fire, earth and water as
sacred and believe the vulture helps release the spirits of their ancestors.
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- CITY SCAVENGERS
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- In Bombay, home to one of the country's largest Parsi
populations, the community has installed solar panels at the Towers of
Silence to use the sun's rays to dispose of their dead.
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- "They are also thinking of enclosing the Towers
of Silence with captive vultures," says Prakash.
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- Vultures are also considered sacred in Hindu mythology
because, according to legend, the bird died while trying to rescue Sita,
the wife of Hindu god-king Ram.
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- Religious considerations aside, ornithologists and environmentalists
say the dramatic drop in their numbers has enormous implications for the
ecosystem across the globe.
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- Vultures play a key role in keeping cities clean because
they eat animal carcasses in a country with few resources to dispose of
corpses. Without them, the bodies could pile up, leading to anthrax and
other diseases, some experts say.
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- "Vultures perform a vital function as scavengers,"
says R.D. Jakati, chief wildlife warden in the northern state of Haryana,
which has seen a sudden fall in its vulture population.
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- "The drop in the number of vultures has led to an
increase in the stray dog population which could lead to a rise in the
incidence of rabies."
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- The crisis began about 15 years ago when Prakash noticed
a group of vultures on a tree in a bird sanctuary in northern India with
their heads limp and their beaks down by their bellies.
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- A few days later, the birds had died. Tests showed the
birds showed signs of visceral gout caused by degeneration of the kidneys.
"That's when we began investigating the phenomenon and discovered
the vultures were not victims of pesticide poisoning or a loss of habitat,"
Prakash says.
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- MYSTERY VIRUS
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- "A series of tests showed the birds were suffering
from a virus but it's a completely new strain which we can't identify."
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- Experts say they fear the mystery virus -- which has
struck the Gyps species of vultures -- could spread to other parts of the
world such as Central Asia and Africa because of the migratory patterns
of the birds.
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- "Birds are the first ones to get infected and what
happens to them is an indicator of what's to come," says Prakash,
pointing to a suspected jump from the animal kingdom that seems to have
brought the latest killer virus, SARS, into the human population.
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- Alarmed at the decline in the vulture population, the
Indian government has teamed up with Britain to set up a vulture care center
in Pinjore in Haryana.
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- Tucked away in a forest in Pinjore, the tiny center cares
for sick vultures and monitors their condition through regular blood and
weight checks to try and identify the mystery virus.
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- Four birds are in quarantine and six recovering vultures
have been housed in a row of enormous cages at the center funded by the
Darwin Initiative, a British government grant program.
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- "Unless something is found, these birds could be
extinct in five years," says Prakash, standing amid a row of test
tubes and high-tech lab equipment at the center.
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- "And if the vultures disappear, there can be disease
epidemics which can affect humans," he adds.
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