Vultures, diclofenac, the Parsis of India

Yesterday's South China Morning Post Sunday edition (paid, no link) had as lead in to a story: the current plight and dissension within the Parsi community in India. Adherents to the ancient Zoroastrian faith, the Parsi's generally dispose of their dead at Towers of Silence. It is there they leave a corpse, which is henceforth promptly devoured by vultures. Thusly, one of Zoroastrianism's fundamental beliefs -- that their dead must not pollute the land, air or water -- is practiced. Or was, until very recently.
Vultures are one of the Indian sub-continent's pre-eminent sanitary engineers -- eating up not just the Parsi's dead, but everyone else's: dead cows, goats, dogs, what-have-yous. But in the late 1990s, first peasant farmers and the Parsis, then a scientist, noticed there were fewer and fewer vultures, and that vultures were dropping down dead all over the place. In fact, numbers had plummeted by 99 percent. In less than a decade. Which is why other scientists worldwide quickly joined the quest to figure out what had happened and why. In the interim, the once ubiquitous vulture was promptly put on the critically endangered list.
Meantime, the Parsi's were trying to figure out what to do given the increasing paucity of vultures. Magnify solar rays to dessicate the bodies? Create a netted aviary over the Tower of Silence? The discussion went this way and that. It is still not settled.
Scientists finally identified the culprit as Diclofenac, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) taken to reduce inflammation, such as in arthritis. Turns out the farmers were giving it to their cattle. If a cow keeled over, the opportunistic vultures ate it... and absorbed the diclofenac. With devastating result. It's a fascinating story, more here.
In March 2005, the Indian government ordered diclofenac banned, an order that will take effect by the end of this year. Hopefully, the vultures will recover in number. It is not a given, however. Once a predator's presence diminishes other predators move into the ecological niche. Newly occupied, that niche may no longer be available to vultures in significant number.
Disclosure: I regularly take diclofenac. The only vultures round here wear suits and, as far as I know, while they may try to extract their pound of flesh, it is more often from the living than the dead. Still, to safeguard the future of the (avian) vultures, I guess my diclofenac ingestions disqualify me from ending up at one of those Towers of Silence. Oh, well... there are other ways: ashes to ashes, dust to dust, et cetera. Meanwhile: live well, be thankful, be helpful.