Parsis to import, breed vultures
The Parsi tradition of cremation by keeping the bodies in the Tower of Silence to be devoured by vultures was under threat as birds of prey had gone almost extinct in Mumbai.
The Bombay Parsi Punchayet has now decided to import and begin breeding vultures.
Sixty five-year-old Dhan Baria claims that dead bodies lay rotting slowly for months on end inside the Parsi Towers of Silence.
“Would you be able to bear it if people lay in that horrible state?” asked Baria.
Baria’s claim had created ripples in the small community last year.
Now, six months after the controversy, the Bombay Parsi Panchayet has decided to import and begin breeding vultures, on which Parsis rely dispose off their dead.
“This issue has fractured our community like nothing else. It is a very sensitive issue. We hope by increasing the number of vultures, the community can be united again,” said Bombay Parsi Punchayet Trustee Dinshaw Mehta.
The project is being led by scientists at the Bombay Natural History Society, who have seen recent success in breeding the endangered birds in conservation centres in Haryana.
Once governmental permissions have been obtained, about a 100 of the almost extinct scavengers will be brought into Mumbai at first and will be housed in three aviaries, two of which will be at the Towers of Silence.
Leaders in the community and 98 per cent of all Parsis still opt for the traditional method of disposal – that is, consigning bodies to the Towers.
So breeding vultures, they say, will not only ensure they are fulfilling their religious duty, but also helping ecological conservation.
“It’s a win-win situation for the community, maybe now, instead of 98 percent, 99 percent of Parsis will come back to this method of disposal,” said Khojesti Mistry of World Alliance of Parsi and Irani Zarthoshtis (WAPIZ).
The project is expected to cost about Rs 1 crore, and will take about a year.
Original article here
This piece on Parsi Khabar is dated 19th March 2007 wherein it is stated that ‘“It’s a win-win situation for the community, maybe now, instead of 98 percent, 99 percent of Parsis will come back to this method of disposal,” said Khojesti Mistry of World Alliance of Parsi and Irani Zarthoshtis (WAPIZ).
The project is expected to cost about Rs 1 crore, and will take about a year.
Now it is two years but the community has still mot heard of the progress in this issue.
What is P.R.O. of BPP not keeping the community updated?
Rashna,
As the project was then expected to cost Rs. 1 crore and due to lapse of three years cost may have probably double and BPP is therefore ‘probably’ finding this amount ‘beyond its means’.
So BPP Trustees may be wishing that like the birds of prey, the Community should also become extinct and PROBLEM can be treated as solved.
No need to be so caustic.
It is strange that persons occupying high office and entrusted with management of large corpus of estates of the community talk irresponsibly and then expect the community to just forget their past jingoism.
May be they were waiting for announcment of the Govt schemes one crore which was to arrest decline in Parsi population atleast now will be use to fund the method of disposal of departed.
Folks all.,
Have the Braggarts ‘lost’ their faculty or ability to make noises now when facing reality? Earlier they did not even require a public address system.
I believe that funds allocated for saving the Tiger are more than those for saving our community from extinction.