South Asian Business news and information

Safe food is a common concern for everyone these days. Getting natural and organic food has become a major cause of concern for human beings. Well, the vultures of South Asia are suffering from the same problem too. They are forced to eat contaminated foods. The condition is worse for vultures in Nepal. Extinction is now a real possibility for vultures of Nepal. Farmers in Nepal use a drug called Diclofenac for treating sick cattle in Nepal. This drug is ban in Nepal but farmers use it because it is cheaper than other drugs. This drug is poisonous for the vultures. Once they eat the meat of dead cattle, they suffer kidney failure because of the existence of this drug in the body of the dead or sick animals.

So, the number of vultures has declined in Nepal drastically in the last 17 years.

Reuters reported:

Scientists says South Asia's vultures are on the brink of extinction largely due to farmers dosing their cattle with diclofenac, a drug used to treat inflammation, poisoning the scavenging birds one step up the food chain.

Numbers of Oriental white-backed, long-billed and slender-billed vultures in the region have plummeted.

The vulture population in Nepal is estimated to have fallen to a mere 500 nesting pairs from at least 50,000 pairs in 1990, according to a local conservation group, Bird Conservation Nepal.

Wow, from 50,000 pairs to 500! Nepal is a very poor country and Nepalese government cannot afford to spend money for protecting the vultures. The government does not have enough money to ensure 3 meals a day for all the children- let alone vultures. So, some nature lovers have come forward and decided to set up a chain of restaurants to ensure safe foods for the vultures in Nepal. The first restaurant has been established already.

Indian Muslims reported:

Concerned at the near-extermination of the once common bird, Nepal's oldest civil organisation fighting for the rights of birds, Bird Conservation Nepal (BCN), has started a unique initiative to build chemical-free feeding centres for the vulture, the Rising Nepal daily said.

The first vulture 'restaurant' runs at Kawasoti village in Nawalparasi district in western Nepal. BCN bought a plot of land to build a farm for old cattle nearing death.

The farm buys old and ill cattle from farmers, treats them with the new alternative to Diclofenac, a drug called Meloxicam, and when the animals meet their end, leave the carcasses in the open for vultures to feed on.

After establishing the Kawasoti feeding centre, BCN conducted a massive awareness campaign in the district. As farmers started sending old cows to the farm, it focused on building a new feeding centre.

Let us hope that this can help the vultures. If you love nature and if you are interested to do something for these vultures then the best thing you can do is to spread the message of vulture restaurants. May be this kind of restaurants can be opened in other parts of the world. I must admit that I am not a big fan of vultures but I feel sad that the vultures of Nepal are facing extinction.