The decline in vulture populations in India over the past few decades has had disastrous effects. According to a recent study, half a million humans may have died prematurely from 2000 to 2005 as a result of this ecological calamity. The public health crisis caused by the absence of these vital scavengers highlights the delicate balance that must exist between biodiversity and human health.
The study published in the American Economic Review puts the monetary damage from the related public health crisis at nearly $70 billion a year. These results suggest high returns for conserving keystone species such as vultures.
According to a release, vultures are a keystone species in India, essential to the functioning of many of the country’s ecosystems. The birds of prey don’t just clean up disease-ridden carcasses; by removing food, they reduce the populations of other scavengers, such as feral dogs that can transmit rabies. What’s more, without vultures, farmers dispose of their dead livestock in waterways, further spreading disease.
And that’s exactly what happened. In 1994, farmers began giving a drug called diclofenac to cattle and other livestock for pain, inflammation, and other conditions. But it was poisonous to the vultures that fed on these animals, destroying their kidneys. In just a decade, Indian vulture populations fell dramatically, from 50 million individuals to just a couple thousand.
Anant Sudarshan, an Associate Professor at the University of Warwick and Senior Fellow at EPIC, witnessed environmental degradation in India during his youth. Cattle carcasses accumulated near tanneries, leading to toxic waste contaminating waterways. To assess 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 analysed health records from over 600 districts, accounting for variables like water quality and healthcare access.
