In my school life I have not seen vultures flying in the sky, nor have I seen them anywhere on the way; once while going along the country road from a distance I saw a wake of vultures feeding on a carcass by the riverside. My grandmother was with me on that day; she asked me to look at it, and I looked through the window panes. She told me that some thirty years ago vultures could be seen frequently ( at that time highways had been narrow, and two vehicles running in opposite directions could not cross the road at ease) in the street, in the paddy fields, and in the railway track. She said that vultures were not the enemy of the people, and she was remorseful that people disliked this creature.

At that time when a carcass of cattle lay in the street, people need not have to hire anybody to remove a carcass from the street to dispose of it somewhere, as it has been happening today. Now the streets have become busy with vehicles running continuously throughout the day, so also goats and cows are dashed most of the time, and it has become a daily occurrence. The neighbours who dwell near the street had to collect money from every house, after that they would hire some men to pay them the money for removing the carcass from the street, and bury it somewhere in a deserted location.

In my primary school, I learnt the 26 letters of the English alphabet, I read in the morning and in the evening, A for apple, B for box….V for the van; and in some books and in the calendar chart V for the vehicle; and that chart would hang on the wall in front of my table. Vultures play an important part in keeping the ecology intact, and I have not come across in any book while turning over the pages that V also stands for vulture! Also, I have not seen pictures of this graceful creature before, till I saw a conference of vultures for the first time on the riverside feeding on a carcass.

My grandmother’s saying about the role played by vultures in the environment made me inquisitive to learn more about it. Vultures keep a balance to the environment and keep away epidemics like cholera and other epidemics.

I failed to understand in which way the society is running, because in the street when a wake of vultures feed on a carcass, people used to pelt stones on them. People kill the vultures, and why they kill is not known; people should know that these beautiful creatures are adapted to eating rotten fleshes only, and they flock together and navigate in the forest areas, in the riverside, in the fields in search of decomposed and decayed carcasses. People have nothing to fear about this creature; it is not known when a man sees a flock of vultures in a big tree, the man would order his children to get inside the house.

In the past, people need not have to summon somebody to take away a carcass from their sight when any cattle was knocked by vehicles. In such incidents after a few hours or so, or in the next day, the wake of the vulture would descend from the sky to the ground to feed on the carcass; and it assembled as if there were a family gathering around the deceased at a funeral, and they would feed in groups on the unfortunate death of an animal.

A pathetic incident happened in the Kamrup district of Assam on 17 March 2022, where almost 100 vultures died because of feeding on poisonous carcasses, as the poison was spread on the carcass. Officials and scientists of the Bombay National History Society (BNHS) did not bury the carcasses, but cremated them to protect the food chain since the poison of the dead bodies would mix with earth and paddy crops and mingle everywhere which would kill other insects. According to BNHS, there are around 1500 to 2000 vultures alive in Assam.

On 21 June 2021, twenty-three vultures died because of feeding on the cattle that were poisoned near Talap in the Tinsukia district of Assam. On 15 February 2020, at least 10 endangered vultures died after eating a carcass due to the suspected poisoning of the carcass.

Where have the vultures gone, we will have to save Them...

I want to give a message that vultures play an important role in balancing ecology in relation to the physical environment. Decline in the population of vultures at an alarming rate is also responsible for the increase in pollution everywhere. We know that a vulture is a bird of prey, and they eat only dead flesh, but people have disgusting feelings about vultures, and this thing should be eliminated from the minds of people. I feel awareness campaigns should be carried out extensively among the people about the good deeds that the vultures do to keep the ecology healthy.

Mobile phones are flourishing everywhere, in every nook and corner of the state; all farmers and school children and grocery store owners, and people of every profession in society converse on mobile phones. I think nature lovers should do something to have the caller tune of vultures implemented into the mobile phone stating that they keep the surroundings healthy by scavenging meat from the carcasses. As far as I am concerned it will help a long way to preserve the vultures, and nature lovers should do everything possible for the preservation of this threatened species and their habitat. For conserving the species of vultures people should be told that vultures do not hunt living animals; they depend on carcasses of livestock and animals that lay everywhere in the jungles, in the paddy fields, in the railway tracks, in the riverside, and they keep the environment clean.

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