Followers of the prophet Zoroaster and worshippers of fire, who are called "Parsis" in India, are concerned about the sharp decline in the vulture population. For centuries, these large birds have built nests near the" towers of silence " - the necropolises of the Zoroastrians. They eat the bodies of the dead and thus perform an important sanitary and hygienic function.
Zoroastrians consider dead flesh to be a container of filth and demonic evil. They do not bury the dead in the ground or burn them on a funeral pyre, so as not to desecrate the sacred natural elements - fire, air, water and earth. According to an ancient tradition, the Parsis lock the dead in squat stone towers without a roof or windows. There they are placed in granite or marble niches. They are separated from each other by a narrow parapet and form three circles that represent the ethical triad-good thoughts, good words and righteous deeds. The inner circle is for children, the middle circle is for women, and the outer circle is for men.
Hungry flocks of scavenger birds are constantly on duty at the mournful structure. They wait impatiently for the massive iron door to close behind the porters to devour the corpse hungrily. Vultures do the work of millions of earthworms in a single hour. After a few days, the scorching rays of the sun dry out human bones. Then the remains are dumped into a deep well located in the center of the tower.
Thus, the disappearance of vultures threatens to disrupt one of the important rituals of the Parsis. Recent studies show that in Maharashtra, Gujarat and other states of India, populations of these birds have decreased by 80 to 90 percent. "In places where I used to see thousands of vultures feeding, now there are only about fifty individuals left," says Vibhu Prakash, a well-known ornithologist. The situation is similar in Pakistan, Nepal, Thailand and Myanmar.
Indian scientists put forward several hypotheses of mass death of vultures. According to one of them, the birds are shot by airport employees, as the accumulation of birds poses a real threat to aviation flights. Another connects the disappearance of vultures with the widespread use of pesticides in modern agriculture. With plant-based food, pesticides enter the body of domestic animals, and then are absorbed by scavenger birds, causing them to be poisoned. This version is also supported by the fact that in the tissue samples of dead vultures, the amount of pesticides is four times higher than in the tissues of pigeons and cranes.
However, most ornithologists still believe that the main cause of death of vultures is an unknown virus, which probably originated in Southeast Asia. From there, the epidemic spread to India, Pakistan and Iran. Unfortunately, the virus remains unidentified to this day. It takes time and a collective effort of stakeholders to recognize it. Signs of bird disease are low mobility and loss of appetite. With their heads hanging down, vultures sit in one place for a long time. A month after the first symptoms of the disease, they die.
There is a certain cyclicity in the appearance of new viruses that are dangerous to animal and human life. So, the swine virus "nipah" has caused the death of more than a hundred people in Malaysia. The hendra virus has killed 14 horses in Australia and killed several people. There is a threat that an unknown virus that has infected vultures may also affect domestic birds and people. "We support the Indian government's efforts to protect wildlife and are ready to immediately conduct a vulture census," suggests Forest Inspector S. S. Sharma.
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