Originally published February 26 2006
Diclofenac to be banned in India after vulture population devastated by the drug
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Diclofenac, a painkiller given to sick cows, has been linked to the decimation of India's vulture population, which experts claim has been reduced by 90 percent because of vultures feeding on dead cattle, whose bodies carry the toxic anti-inflammatory drug.
More than 90 percent of India's vultures, a crucial link in the environment, have died and the government is working to ban a drug blamed for the near-extinction, officials said Tuesday.
A. Raja, the minister for environment and forests, also said at an international conference on vultures that officials would soon begin a nationwide census of the birds to assess how many are left, the government's Press Information Bureau reported.
Over the past 15 years, millions of oriental white-backed, long-billed and slender-billed vultures in South Asia have died from eating cattle carcasses tainted by diclofenac, an anti-inflammatory and painkiller given to sick cows, experts say.
"An action plan is being finalized taking into all aspects of the banning of diclofenac," said Environment Secretary Prodipto Ghosh.
But the government's aim to ban the drug has been hampered by the lack of an alternate _ crucial in India where animal husbandry is a major source of income for rural poor.
In a report published in the British journal PLoS Biology, a team of scientists from South Africa, Namibia, Britain and India said they had found that meloxicam, a drug similar to diclofenac, was as effective in treating sick cattle and posed no significant danger to the vultures, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said in a statement in Bombay.
Vultures play a vital role in disposing of carcasses and in the process help halt the spread of disease.
Apart from cutting out the use of diclofenac, Indian conversationists are also trying to save the birds by breeding them in captivity.
But vultures are slow breeders, said Vibhu Prakash, who leads the breeding program, which aims to release 100 pairs of birds within 15 years.
Experts said they were encouraged by the British report.
"It is essential that the government of India acts quickly to make good use of this new information," said Asad Rahmani, the director of the Bombay Natural History Society.
All content posted on this site is commentary or opinion and is protected under Free Speech. Truth Publishing LLC takes sole responsibility for all content. Truth Publishing sells no hard products and earns no money from the recommendation of products. NaturalNews.com is presented for educational and commentary purposes only and should not be construed as professional advice from any licensed practitioner. Truth Publishing assumes no responsibility for the use or misuse of this material. For the full terms of usage of this material, visit www.NaturalNews.com/terms.shtml