Deadly span: On vulture safety in India, threat of electrocution

Whereas for many decades the chief concern about vulture safety was centered on chemical threats, the threat of electrocution posed by India’s expanding power infrastructure may supersede it. In the 1990s, India’s vultures suffered one of the world’s worst population crashes, nosediving 99.5% by 2007 from a high of around four crore in the 1980s; the white-rumped, Indian, and slender-billed vultures were nearly wiped out. The culprit was diclofenac, a painkiller for cattle that wrecks vulture kidneys. The government banned the use of diclofenac , with additional bans in 2023 to mitigate threats posed by aceclofenac and ketoprofen, among some other NSAIDs. The birds’ decline left carcasses exposed for longer, supporting feral dog populations and leading to rabies outbreaks; a 2024 study in American Economic Review estimated that human mortality thus rose 4% and the associated damages cost India $69.4 billion a year.