Vultures and their People in India: Equity and Entanglement in a Time of Extinctions

Abstract

In conversations about vultures in India, people have often recounted to me having seen large numbers gathered along the banks of rivers, consuming the dead bodies of cattle and other animals, including sometimes people, as they float by or wash up on the water's edge. When a carcass meets a vulture's beak, it matters very little if this flesh, this meat, was once a human or some other kind of animal. In fact, numerous human societies throughout history including present-day Parsee communities in India, and Buddhists in Tibet and elsewhere utilise exposure to vultures as the most appropriate way of taking care of their dead (Schuz and Konig 1983; Subramanian 2008; van Dooren 2010). I am interested in the dynamics and practicalities of eating and being eaten in multispecies communities, but for the moment I would like to remain with the vultures on the banks on the