Amid the diverse forests of southern India, across Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala, a silent crisis is unfolding, threatening the survival of nature’s most efficient scavengers: vultures.

A synchronised vulture survey conducted across Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Karnataka in February 2025 estimated . While this is higher than the previous year’s estimate of 320 vultures, it is still significantly less than . The survey recorded 157 vultures in Tamil Nadu – the white-rumped vulture (110), long-billed vulture (31) red-headed vulture (11) and the Egyptian vulture (5). According to the IUCN Red List, the first three are critically endangered, while the latter is endangered.

The root cause for the decline in vultures in India has been the pharmaceutical drug known as diclofenac, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, or NSAID, used to treat cattle. Vultures that ingest diclofenac residues from the carcasses of treated cattle face severe health complications such as renal failure and even death, leading to catastrophic declines in their populations.

The drop in vulture population in India, due to the impacts of diclofenac resulted in the government banning the drug for veterinary use in 2006. Other similar drugs, such as aceclofenac, ketoprofen and nimesulide, were also found to be fatally toxic and subsequently banned.

“These banned NSAIDs work miraculously...