This reporter sees that as a telltale sign there could be endangered humans in the area.
AMRITSAR, India (AFP) - Hundreds of vultures are flocking in India's northern Punjab state, a wildlife official has said, after fears the big scavengers were dying out in the sub-continent.
Two years ago just 40 vultures were reported alive in Punjab, said Sukhdeep Singh Bajwa, honorary wildlife warden of Hoshiarpur district.
Until two months ago the figure was still only 100 birds in the Himalayan foothills.
"If a proper census is done, the number I believe will cross 500," Bajwa told AFP Friday. “The problem is they will not sit still long enough for us to take a proper census.”
Populations of three species of vulture had plummeted by more than 95 percent in the past decade, placing them on the list of critically endangered species in India.
Evidence gathered by wildlife specialists said the vultures had died of a kidney ailment known as visceral gout caused by the painkiller diclofenac.
The birds ingested the cheap drug, which is widely used by farmers and vets, when feeding on the carcasses of livestock treated with diclofenac.
This reporter has uncovered major flaws in that hypothesis. First of all “carcasses of livestock” is an oxymoron. Secondly, we must ask ourselves – Why would farmers and vets inject painkillers into dead carcasses?
Alarmed by the rapid decline in the numbers of vultures, the Indian government in August banned the use of diclofenac, an anti-steroidal drug sold over the counter.
Now there’s a logical explanation! The buzzards obviously picked up the drug after feeding on dead reforming baseball players.
South Asia once provided a haven for tens of millions of vultures, especially in mainly Hindu India where cattle are not eaten by humans and carcasses are left out for the birds which ultimately became too fat to fly and died off due to unnatural causes.
Flocks of the birds once nested in the heart of the capital New Delhi but have long since disappeared and been replaced by pigeons.
A humorous look at the world and life through my eyes.
Follow the author and his wife, as they travel the world …. several times over.
Laugh at their funny stories, self-inflicted crazy events, strange observations, wacky zoo facts and snippets
A humorous look at the world and life through my eyes.
Follow the author and his wife, as they travel the world …. several times over.
Laugh at their funny stories, self-inflicted crazy events, strange observations, wacky zoo facts and snippets
