Then you’ll be delighted to hear about the Chipko movement. The word literally means hugger and some of these poor villagers have even lost their lives trying to protect trees. Also check out the Bishnoi tribe of Rajasthan. This is a fascinating group of people who care deeply about their environement and literally live their day to day lives with the conscioussness that all of us are in this together. The Bishnois were the ones who nabbed Salman Khan for killing the deer btw (one of the times).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chipko_movement

The next day though, it was such a beautiful sight to see the crows feasting without risk. And now I have a collection of skeletons around my garden.

There are more of us out there than you would think.

It was one of those “hey, what’s up?” moments humans can have with animals, when you realize that we’re all in this together, that each creature serves its function, and that the social and cultural practices of one species have significant effects on the well-being of others.

Makes me even happier when that person is a desi… or really just anyone who doesn’t fit that white, dreadlocked, tree-hugging (etc.) profile. The notion that immigrants, poor people, urban dwellers and people of color don’t care (and/or don’t have a reason to care) about the environment is one of my biggest pet peeves. Everything you see, even in your most immediate surroundings (including yourself!!!) is part of “The Environment”, and you have as much right and responsibility to the greater environment — vultures and all — as some hippie or bobo.

I spend a lot of time looking up and seeing a raptor can make my day. It’s a shame that I so often see them as roadkill, a result of them being attracted to roadkill. I know this is creepy, but in my early morning runs, I often can be seen dragging ‘stuff’ to the side of the road.

I second what Saheli just said about this. Really coach, like I needed any more reasons to adore you… And I agree with you about watching predator birds — awesome spectacle. When I go camping around lakes, I see them gliding majestically over the water, going for the kill in breathtaking swoops. Amazing.

Not creepy at all! Heroic! Bravo!

Vultures feeding is certainly not a pretty sight, but they are extremely elegant in flight, if you can ignore the terrible smell, that is. Also if you come across a skeleton they fed on, you have to admire the virtuosity: so perfectly cleaned up it won’t look out of place in a biology lab.

The vulture reference in Omakara’s title track (‘chhat par aake giddh baithe, aur parnalo se khoon bahe’) never fails to set my hair on edge. It’d be tragic if such a magnificient animal vanished due to an unintended mistake by mankind.

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria, if you are unfortunate enough to get infected with them, are really really horrible. In some sense it is the rolling back of modernity. And it’s a huge problem in India.