Deadly Span: Power Infrastructure Emerges as Primary Threat to India's Vultures

Gist India's expanding electrical infrastructure is emerging as a critical physical threat to its fragile vulture populations, potentially superseding historical chemical threats. The wide wingspans of these scavengers make them highly susceptible to fatal electrocution, especially when food sources are located near power lines. This necessitates urgent infrastructural adaptations and strategic relocation of carcass dumps to prevent local extinctions of these ecologically vital raptors. Background India experienced one of the world's most severe avian population crashes in the 1990s , with vulture numbers plummeting by 99.5% by 2007 from a baseline of four crore in the 1980s . The primary culprit was diclofenac , a veterinary non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug NSAID that causes fatal kidney failure in vultures feeding on treated cattle carcasses. The government banned veterinary diclofenac and extended this ban in 2023 to other toxic NSAIDs like aceclofenac and ketoprofen . While chemical poisoning decimated populations of the white-rumped , Indian , and slender-billed vultures , the surviving populations now face an infrastructural threat that their significantly reduced numbers cannot absorb. Key Pointers A vulture's naturally wide wingspan becomes…