Vultures are known to be the scavenger of the environment and feeds upon the carcasses of the dead animals and dead and decaying human corpses.  Decades ago whenever there was a dead animal around, the vulture were swarmed and once the dead animal is disposed in the wild, they had feasting time. In Indian context vultures are very important component of the ecology to keep the environment clean by feeding the dead animals.

As per the tradition Indians are known to maintain their cattle stock till they can be useful for their agricultural use and milking purposes. Sending them to the butchery when they are not useful is out of question because emotionally they are attached to them. The problem begins only when they are dead and there is no proper way to dispose off the dead animal carcasses. Vultures have always been there to help as scavenger being an integral part of the Indian society of cleaning dead and decaying animal. 

But one can witness, vulture are hardly to be seen now a days. Have all the vultures gone away because they don’t get food?  Have they all migrated to some other places in search of food or are there any other competitors for them in the same niche?  According to a report published by Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Asian vultures are at risk of lethal kidney failure if they feed from carcasses of a cow that died after treatment with the anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac. Populations of three species of South Asian vulture, the white-backed vulture (Gyps bengalensis), the long-billed vulture (Gyps indicus) and the slender-billed vulture (Gyps tenuirostris), have declined rapidly within the last decade and all are now critically endangered.

Diclofenac causes fatal kidney failure in vultures and residues of the drug have been found in most carcasses of wild vultures tested since the population decline began. “Diclofenac poisoning is the main, and possibly the only, cause of the vulture decline.

There are other opinions also about the declining population of vultures. According to one conservator, the decline might be due to scarcity of food for the scavengers because people prefer to bury dead animals, especially cattle, from the hygiene point of view. Hence, the vultures have to depend upon carcass of stray animals.