When Khojaste Mistree, a Parsi theology teacher, thinks it necessary to travel all the way from Mumbai to Delhi to attend an international conference on saving vultures, it is heartening and at the same time worrying. Heartening because a community is willing to participate in the conservation of a vanishing species and worrying because it means that the vultures are really and truly dying.Vultures touch the lives of many communities. They are more than just a species of birds. With their keen eyesight and long flights, they are able to clean a full carcass in 20 minutes right upto the bone.But as far as Parsis are concerned, saving vultures is more than just a conservation issue. Mistree talks with pride of the green lungs of south Mumbai, where the Parsi Tower of Silence is surrounded by 50 acres of greenery. ``We feel that death is a victory of evil, so we do not bury or burn our dead but leave it under the open skies for the vultures. The vultures earlier lived near these towers of silence,'' said Mistree. ``If the vultures do not live, the towers of silence will not function and our religion will die the way it did in Iran when they banned the towers of silence,'' he added. There are 70,000 Parsis in the country, of which 55,000 are in Mumbai.Now, from nearly a 100 birds a few years ago, today there are just a few in the area. ``We need vultures to strengthen our mode of disposal,'' said Mistree. ``We would like to participate in any captive breeding programme which the government undertakes,'' he said.At the conference organised this week, the alarm bells finally started clanging. With experts from all over the world, including Dr. David Houston, renowned expert on vultures to experts from the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds from UK, there was a consensus: something needs to be done fast as a lot of time had already been lost in ascertaining whether the vultures were dying or not.Earlier, pesticides were thought to be responsible for their deaths, but further tests in the National Institute of Virology confirmed that it was a virus that was affecting the vultures. The species most badly hit was the white-backed and long-billed vultures. In fact, scientists presenting papers at the seminar felt that the virus had come from south-east Asia and the disease was spreading westwards.``The vultures were so abundant that people refused to believe anybody. But the rate at which the population is falling (90 per cent), we could be on the brink of an ecological disaster,'' said Asad Rahmani, director BNHS.In the first survey conducted by BNHS over 11,000 kilometres, out of 172 carcasses, only nine had vultures eating them. ``Somebody has to take care of the pollution in the countryside with dogs and crows carrying the infection,'' said Pete Wood, an expert from the UK.What made everybody doubly sure about this phenomenon was a unique exercise carried out in the beginning of this year. Organised by the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) and World Wildlife Fund (WWF), it had the support of Rajasthan Patrika, a Hindi daily which came forward to assist the campaign.The newspaper published three advertisements to appeal to people to observe the vultures and report about them filling the coupon. The Vulture Watch Campaign was launched in January 31, 2000. It brought more than 2,000 responses from allthe 32 districts of Rajasthan besides some from the neighbouring states.The census is the first of its kind devoted to birds in the country. It succeeded in mobilising thousands of people with its catchy advertisements and bold headlines. The report as a result of the census itself is unique as 90 per cent of the respondents are from the rural areas who reported vulture sightings or the lack of these.In the conference, a need was felt to expand this effort in Rajasthan to the entire country.``We have lessons to learn from the West in conservation of some wild species which were on the verge of extinction but were brought back to life because of the massive campaign involving the locals,'' said Rahmani.Scientists feel that as far as captive breeding is concerned, there should be no problem since vultures do not require much space to breed in.One example which is relevant here is the case of Californian Condor in the US. It is a majestic bird with a huge wing-span, but just nine were left because of indiscriminate shooting. All the nine were caught and bred in captivity. In a couple of years, the numbers has grown to 167.A massive campaign ensued in which the public was invited for Condor sightings, T-shirts were distributed and prizes given to those who spotted a bird. It was projected as a national asset.It is not just an ecological issue which can be tackled by scientists and the government, but there is a need to involve those whose lives are touched by these birds, one way or another.
