Drug ban gives new lease of life to dying Indian vultures

The catastrophic decline in the vulture population in India has slowed, stopped or even reversed in some areas, thanks to a ban on a veterinary drug, according to a recently released paper in the journal Science, Vanita Srivastava reports.

The catastrophic decline in the vulture population in India has slowed, stopped or even reversed in some areas, thanks to a ban on a veterinary drug, according to a recently released paper in the journal Science.

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The scavengers’ population declined largely because farmers had started giving their cattle an anti-inflammatory drug called diclofenac, which the birds ingested when they ate the dead cattle, said Andrew Balmford, paper author and professor of conservation biology at the University of Cambridge.

Although problem of drug pollution have been particularly difficult to address, recent developments in south Asia offer some positive news.Scientists and politicians are at last making progress in reversing the accidental but catastrophic poisoning of the region’s vultures by a widespread veterinary drug, said paper titled — Pollution, Politics and Vulture.

Twenty years ago, vulture population across Indian subcontinent witnessed downfall.“A carefully targeted research — combined with political commitment and government-NGO cooperation — is making a real difference,” Balmford wrote.