A new study reveals that India’s vulture scarcity has become a major health problem. This could have been a reason for 500,000 people to die too early during the period from 2000 to 2005. A journal called the American Economic Review published this study. According to the study, this particular health problem costs about $70 billion annually in India.
Why Vultures Are Important
Vultures are an important part of the bird population in India. They are scavengers that feed on dead animals and prevent the spread of diseases. If the vultures had not clean up the carcasses, other animals such as wild dogs would have feasted on them. This is adverse because wild dogs are transmitters of a killer disease known as rabies.
Also, when farmers can’t rely on vultures to eat their dead farm animals, they mostly throw them in the rivers. This makes the water dirty and spreads more diseases.
What Killed the Vultures?
In 1994, farmers started treating their cows and other farm animals with a medicine called diclofenac. The medicine was good for farm animals but certainly very bad for vultures. When vultures ate dead animals that had been given this medicine, it hurt their kidneys very badly.
Due to this medicine, the vulture population of India fell drastically. From 50 million vultures, only a few thousand were left after 10 years.
What the Study Found
The study was done by two scientists: Anant Sudarshan and Eyal Frank. The two scientists drew on health data from more than 600 districts of India. Additionally, they considered maps outlining the historical distribution of vultures.
Also taken into consideration by the researchers were other factors that incidentally affect human health, like quality of water and access to health facilities. Doing this helped in finding out how much of the problem in health was because of having fewer vultures.
Why This Study is Important
The study points out that we should take care of such animals as vultures; if not checked, the toll will be huge on human health and in financial costs. The researchers hope the findings will help people understand how important it is to protect vultures and other creatures that play huge roles in nature.
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