The decline in vulture populations in India over the past few decades has led to a catastrophic public health crisis. A recent study reveals that half a million humans may have died prematurely between 2000 and 2005 due to this ecological calamity. The absence of these vital scavengers has underscored the delicate balance between biodiversity and human health.
The study, published in the American Economic Review, estimates the monetary damage from the associated public health crisis at nearly $70 billion a year. These findings highlight the high returns for conserving keystone species such as vultures.
Vultures are essential to the functioning of many of India’s ecosystems. These birds of prey not only clean up disease-ridden carcasses but also reduce the populations of other scavengers, such as feral dogs, which can transmit rabies. Without vultures, farmers dispose of their dead livestock in waterways, further spreading disease.
The crisis began in 1994 when farmers started using a drug called diclofenac to treat pain and inflammation in cattle and other livestock. Unfortunately, this drug was poisonous to vultures, destroying their kidneys when they fed on treated animals. In just a decade, India’s vulture population plummeted from 50 million to just a few thousand.
Anant Sudarshan, an Associate Professor at the University of Warwick and Senior Fellow at EPIC, witnessed this environmental degradation during his youth. Cattle carcasses piled up near tanneries, leading to toxic waste contaminating waterways. To assess the human health impacts, Sudarshan and co-author Eyal Frank, an environmental economist at the University of Chicago, overlaid maps of vulture habitats with administrative districts and analyzed health records from over 600 districts, accounting for variables like water quality and healthcare access.
This ecological disaster highlights the interconnectedness of environmental health and human well-being, emphasizing the urgent need for conservation efforts to restore vulture populations and prevent further public health crises.
