Eat the Dead to be Alive

VULTURES ARE ALSO PART OF OUR ENVIRONMENT CULTURE.

Just three decades ago as we were going to school, we would observe vultures  enjoying a feast on the carcasses. Normally a flock of 10-20 would be together to taste and rest.  We would be scared much on seeing those big monstrous looking wingers and the foul smell filling the area would hasten us to cross the farm bunds in the quickest time possible. 

But later on I learnt their population has come down due to various reasons.
1. Their habitats were destroyed as more and more lakes became concrete jungles and the lake    bunds lost their trees
2. The vultures which took the dead rats as their food were poisoned as the rats were killed by the farmers using poison.
3. The cattle population has come down drastically and hence the  dead cattle population too is low and the vultures left with nothing to feed on.

Rarely I notice such vultures today. However the fear of vultures formed in the child hood scares me still. An eerie feeling and strange emotions overflow in me.  What can these harmless creatures do? Just the world can't be of peacocks alone.

• Vultures are crucial in our ecological cycle as they are scavengers. With their robust digestive system they digest disease-causing pathogens found in rotting meat of dead animals. In this way they help man prevent outbreak of infectious diseases such as anthrax, rabies, etc.
  
  At the centre here, few kms away from Alipurduar, captive breeding of the vultures have already been successful for the slender-billed and white-backed species.
  
  As vultures take 4-5 years to reach breeding stage, it is hoped that more vultures would be breeding at the centre in near future.
  
  Built on an area of 5 acre land, the conservation centre, started in 2005, keeps the birds in natural surroundings but under full safety.
  
  The centre has quarantine, hospital nursery and holding aviaries and a small laboratory. Also two large colony aviaries which are open to sky but with a mesh to cover the top and keep it safe from attack by wild animals and monkeys.
  The endangered birds, which are monitored through CCTV cameras, are fed on diclofenac-free goat meat. "These are social birds and they even eat together. There are complex social relations among the flock- members and hence are kept together in a colony," pointed out Chakraborty.
  
  The centre already has the distinction of being the first one in the world to have bred the slender-billed vulture in captivity in 2009. Now they are hoping to breed the long- billed species also.