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The Dogs: an excerpt

January 20, 2016 By meerasub Leave a Comment

IMG_7716

Bikaner carcass dump, Rajasthan. Photo by Meera Subramanian.

An excerpt from Elemental India / A River Runs Again, featured in The Caravan.

The vultures are gone, but the livestock carcasses they once consumed by the millions remain. Many are collected and deposited at carcass dumps like the one called Jorbeer on the outskirts of Bikaner, where dogs run wild amid an endless supply of food.

As I travelled around India, I kept hearing about aggressive dogs. Soon after I arrived in Bikaner, someone told me about two local girls, eight or nine years old, who were attacked by dogs at night, while they were sleeping. They were such easy prey. “They were hurt so badly, but not killed,” the man told me.

“The police came and took the dogs away, but I was so astonished…how can there be dogs like this?”

Read the rest at The Caravan. 

Filed Under: A River Runs Again, elemental india Tagged With: A River Runs Again, book tour, Elemental India, india, vulture

sej outstanding feature story

July 13, 2012 By meerasub Leave a Comment

Thrilled that the SEJ 11th Annual Awards for Reporting on the Environment selected “India’s Vanishing Vultures” for First Place for Outstanding Feature Story.

The judges said “this story by Meera Subramanian was extremely well researched, compellingly written and showed how the impact of the decline of these uncharismatic birds is dramatically affecting the health and the environment of this South Asian nation.”

I, in turn, select the Society of Environmental Journalists as an outstanding journalists’ association. They’ve been instrumental in helping me tackle this challenging trade, especially as a freelancer.

Filed Under: journalism Tagged With: awards, india, Society of Environmental Journalists, vulture

vulture piece published in india

June 10, 2011 By Meera Leave a Comment

Vultures and dogs descend on the carcass of a cow in Varanasi. Unlike dogs who leave much behind, vultures can pick the skeletons perfectly clean.(Photo: GETTY IMAGES)

An excerpted version of my Virginia Quarterly Review piece on India’s vulture crisis is just out in Open magazine in India. Here’s the link: http://openthemagazine.com/article/living/the-last-indian-vultures

Filed Under: journalism Tagged With: india, vulture

vanishing vultures appear in vqr

May 3, 2011 By Meera Leave a Comment

photo by munir virani.

Should the vultures of India be as fortunate as the Virginia Quarterly Review. The esteemed literary journal went through upheaval last year, but like some phoenix, has risen again, Ted Genoways back at the helm. The spring issue, Ruin and Rebirth, features my piece, “India’s Vanishing Vultures”, accompanied by amazing pictures by Ami Vitale. (I dont have rights to her photos, so this spectacular one is by raptor biologist Munir Virani.) It’s not online yet, so pony up the $14 and get down to your local bookseller and support journalism! Thick as a book, this issue features Elliot Woods with the trash-pickers of Cairo, Chien-ming Chung on a journey to where all our electronic waste ends up (hint: it involves an open skillet and children) and a heart-breaking yet crucial account by J. Malcolm Garcia of the debilitating and ignored ailments our veterans are returning from Afghanistan and Iraq with after residing next to open burn pits on military bases. OK, so maybe not the cheeriest of topics, but all part of our brave new world.

Late-breaking addition! No pictures yet, but the story is available here.

Filed Under: journalism Tagged With: conservation, india, vulture

lions, vultures, carbofuran & you

May 12, 2009 By Meera Leave a Comment

sick long-billed vulture in India

sick long-billed vulture in India

Some good news arrived from the EPA yesterday, when they announced a ban on carbofuran residues  on food in the US, including imports. The highly toxic insecticide does such a great job at killing little critters that eat plants that some herdsmen in east Africa have been baiting carcasses with it to eliminate larger competitors as well, such as the leopards and lions that predate domesticated livestock. Whether a carcass has been deliberately baited or an animal is weakened or killed by consuming treated crops, the result is the same. Lions and other large predators are dying along with scavenging vultures. See a BBC video of a staggering lion and vulture here. It has long been known to kill seed-eating birds as well.

Sold under the trade name Furadan by US-based FMC Corporation, carbofuran in food can, of course, have the same detrimental effects on humans as well, especially children who are more susceptible to low dosages. It acts systemically, absorbed by the plant so that aphids, for example, munching on the leaves of a soybean plant die. Those residues don’t magically disappear when those same soybeans reach a human market. One of the most toxic insecticides on the market, it acts as a neurotoxin.

Kudos to the EPA for recognizing that there are certain things we can and should live without. Continued pressure on FMC Corp. will help eliminate its sale globally, so that African and other babies and living creatures–human, avian or leonine–can also be spared the lethal effects of growing up in an increasingly toxic world.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: pesticides, vulture

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