Daily Times

It was an editorial in your esteemed daily that caught my eye the other day. Published on August 10, 2018, it was called ‘learning to love vultures’ and it first introduced me to the possibility that these birds used to, first, live in South Asia in large numbers, and that, two, their numbers have recently started to drop at an alarming rate. It was quite surprising to know that a creature that I had personally never seen in real life could have been so abundant in my country.

According to a story from a colleague at work, there were times when the people living among the mountains would normally just throw out food waste, or leave dead animal carcasses out in the open, only to find everything gone within a few hours. This made vultures one of the best waste disposal organisms in the world, and also made them absolutely essential to our ecology and even human health.

However, now, due to various reasons, their numbers are declining and there are now calls for the government to do something before there are no vultures left in Pakistan. One of the major causes behind their decreasing numbers are the new veterinary medicines prevalent today, that are deadly for vultures once they ingest any animal remains that contained even trace amounts of these substances. Such drugs need to be banned at once, as there are several alternate and safer medicines available instead.

This issue also needs to be promoted across the country so that the common citizens can also play their part in making sure this objectively magnificent creature can continue to live within our borders, for centuries to come.

WAQAR UL HAQ

Lahore

Published in Daily Times, August 15^th 2018.